


At the End of the World

by NoYoureNotReal



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Blood and Injury, Explicit Language, Minor sexy time, Time Travel, canon divergent/compliant/not really an easy way to explain this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:14:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 54,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27819580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoYoureNotReal/pseuds/NoYoureNotReal
Summary: Time passes, often without permission. People change. People die. Can Kagome travel through the well one more time to save the man she loves? And if she does, can she survive when she gets there?
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, Miroku/Sango (InuYasha)
Comments: 107
Kudos: 132





	1. one

**Author's Note:**

> Most of the chapters of this fic takes place in a contentious time period. Lots of horrible, horrible crimes were committed, but I am not trying to provide any commentary on them, except for noting that they were horrible. That being said, my knowledge of the time period and knowledge of the area is sketchy at best; I researched as much as I could, but I’m sure something will pop up as incorrect or anachronistic. I apologize here for anything that may strike you that way— I really did try, and the premise was too good for me to pass up.  
> I owe this fic to three things/people: My Chemical Romance’s song and music video for Ghost of You, the Netflix show The Umbrella Academy, and the unwavering support of WitchyGirl99.

**ONE**

Over the years, she had grown accustomed to counting measures of time. When the jewel was destroyed, it was seconds at first. One second, two seconds, three, and as they passed, the world around her blurred from darkness into colors and light. Then seconds became minutes. She realized she was home, but it was not the home she wanted to be at— she was on the wrong side of the well. Two minutes, and nothing. No pull to the other era. Her Mom and Souta had rushed outside to find her on her knees, sobbing, cursing from the bottom of the well, fingernails caked in the dirt. Still, nothing. Her family tried to comfort her, telling her that it would surely open up soon, that things would just take some time since the jewel didn’t exist anymore. Of course, she believed them. Hope flowed from them like water, and like a parched woman in a desert, she drank it up. It would open soon.

Days passed.

He would be back, or she would go back, or something would happen and she’d see his face again.

More days passed.

A month, two. A holiday. More months. A birthday. More holidays. A year.

One whole year. This time, her fingernails were caked in dirt _and_ blood.

Another year.

One more year.

She graduated.

And still, nothing. _Nothing_. Now hope was like the desert sand, sifting through her fingers. Three years. _Three years_ and nothing.

On her graduation day, her mom gave her a sad smile, as if to say _I know this isn’t what you wanted, but we’re happy for you anyway._ She loved her mom, she did, but she knew what it felt like to be pitied and she was getting sick of it.

For a while her friends had picked at her, asking about her dangerous boyfriend, but that usually had the effect of Kagome making convenient excuses to leave, so they stopped. They started suggesting things to take her mind off of it, new boys, ones that were cute and nice and funny and, what do you know, from this time period. She was so done being pitied, in fact, that she gave up and went on a date with one of them.

It was Hojo.

One date lead to two, two to four, four to sixteen, and just like that, they were together for a year. One whole year. He was kind and warm and just as genuine as he appeared. But he wasn’t dumb, and after a year of trying to earn her love, he recognized that it was a lost cause. So they broke up.

One break up.

Then another year.

She was in her second year at university now, a theater major of all things. She had roomates and new friends. She went to parties to have fun and libraries to study. She had laughter and love and long hugs and soft kisses. But if you’d asked her friends, the ones that knew her from before, they’d tell you she was not the same Kagome they grew up with. That the happiness didn’t reach her eyes. That the light she used to have was just a touch dim, and growing dimmer by the day.

She felt like she was fading into thin air.

Two more years passed; Souta grew tall and wiry like their dad. Their grandfather passed away on a snowy day in January and they spread his ashes on the property, by the tree line.

She could not, _would_ not, look at the damn well, so instead, she watched as her mother cried and the ashes dotted the snow like tufts of smoke.

She went back to finish her final year of university, tried out for parts, went to audition after audition, but nothing stuck. So she stayed at home and took care of her mom, who was far from helpless, but still getting older, and Souta was almost ready to go off to school himself. So who would keep her company, if not for Kagome?

She worked at an American-style bar downtown, though she guessed she only _supposed_ it resembled an American bar. She’d never left the country. She’d barely left the city. She poured drinks for the old and tired and the young and reckless. There were those nights that she was stiffed on tips which was frustrating in and of itself, but the worst nights were when she was hit on. Not because she was afraid; the other guys at the bar had her back, and she was like a little sister to them, so no one gave her too much shit. No. It was because every time another man leered at her, she remembered the thing she’d spent years trying to bury and forget.

 _Inuyasha’d tear them to pieces_ , she’d think, _or at least he’d act like he would._

And once the thoughts started coming, it was hard to stop them.

_He was always so jealous of any man that showed me affection, though he tried to hide it. At the time I was so focused on his feelings for Kikyo that I didn’t see what was right in front of me. I was too young. I couldn’t see it. He loved me._

Which would bring her train of thoughts to the worst one of them all.

 _But if he loved me, then…where_ is _he?_

Then she’d make up some excuse at work, usually one from the list of the illnesses her grandfather always used to tell people she had, and she’d go home and cry into her pillow. Sometimes her mom would come up and rub her back without saying a word. Then she’d fall asleep and try to start fresh in the morning. She never looked out the window though. Or at that godforsaken well.

Spring was finally making its yearly appearance in Tokyo. The trees started budding and bugs with wings and stingers flit about the flowers, reminding her of decidedly bigger bugs that used to end up sucked into her friend’s hand. Long, long ago.

She smiled wistfully to herself as she traversed the cross walk to the other side of the road, purse on her shoulder, dressed in her bartender’s uniform—dark jeans, dark long-sleeved shirt. She’d chosen a forest green this afternoon, inspired by the weather and the promise of new beginnings. It was a Sunday afterall— the beginning of her workweek, the night before the school week, and one step closer to graduating university and going off to…wherever to get an acting job. Somewhere. At some point.

She was getting lost in her thoughts again walking down the crowded street, nearly running into a few people, when someone shouted at her from behind.

“Kagome! Kagome!” the voice shouted.

_“Kagomeeeee!!!!" Inuyasha cried._

She shook her head. She couldn’t think of him right now. Maybe later.

She turned around, surly passersby mumbling their frustrations as she stood in their path, and she tried to get on her tiptoes to see who was calling her name.

“Kagome!”

The voice got closer, and she began to smile.

“Hojo!”

“Hey!” Hojo greeted as he jogged up to her, one hand in his pocket, the other raised in a wave. He was tall now, a mop of sandy brown hair windswept to the side stylishly. “Kagome! Can’t believe it’s you!”

“Can’t believe its you, either!” she grinned. “It’s been so long since we’ve talked in person! Care to walk me to work? It’s only a couple of blocks but I’d love to catch up.”

“Sure,” he breathed, as if winded from the jog. It had been a few months since she’d caught up with him in person, but they’d been texting every few weeks or so. He was one of her oldest, dearest friends now. How things did change.

“You look good!” Kagome said as they walked again with the bustle in the streets.

“Thanks,” he said, running a hand through his hair.“Kenji insisted that I get a haircut, and as usual, he was right.”

“How is he? How are you guys?”

“We’re good,” he said, smiling and blushing. “You know. It’s going good.”

“Still trying to fatten him up with those cupcakes? I swear I put on fifteen pounds the year I dated you.”

Hojo chuckled. “No, he prefers the lemon bars. And yeah, he works out a lot to, as he puts it, ‘work it all off’”.

Kagome’s smile widened. She was so thrilled to see that Hojo had found love after what they had been through. Between Kagome shutting herself off to him, and Hojo struggling with his sexuality, their communication was officially what did their relationship in in the end. But she still cared for him in a fond, more distant sort of way.

“I’m really happy for you Hojo,” she said. “Kenji’s a lucky guy.”

“Yeah, well, I’d love to see you this happy, too, Kags,” he said, glancing at her as he slowed his steps. “Speaking of,” he said in a cautious cadence, “any word from that guy?”

“What guy?” she asked innocently. She of course knew exactly who Hojo was talking about, but she wasn’t about to bring him up again, no matter how frequently he intruded her mind. After all, it was his ghost that haunted her to the point of ending every relationship she’d ever tried, some even before they began.

“Still not going to talk about him after all these years?”

“I have no idea who you’re talking about, sorry.” She responded, mustering all of the skills she’d picked up acting to remind herself to widen her lips, show her teeth, crinkle her eyes as if to smile. “But hey, I’m almost at work anyway. Let’s catch up sometime, though, okay?”

He looked sideways at her from underneath his sandy brown bangs, lips pursed. “Alright Kags. Just, remember to take care of yourself, okay?”

She rolled her eyes and made toward the alleyway beside the restaurant towards the employee entrance. “With you around, how could I ever forget?”

As she placed her hand on the door, she heard from the sidewalk—

“And don’t forget to take your vitamins!”

Clocking in was so familiar to her at this point that she did it on autopilot. Scanning her badge, pushing buttons, fingers scanning along the screen. She was still ten minutes early, but she still had to prep for the night service and the other bartender had to tip out. Besides, she liked being early to work, being good at her job. It was something to take pride in, being that she couldn’t really get to do what she wanted, in this time or in the past. Plus, she made some decent money, which helped pay for occasional help around the shrine. And the job itself wasn’t that hard; people really only ever ordered whatever was on tap, at least at this bar.

“Oh thank god,” Kagome heard from behind her as she fastened her nametag on her shirt. “My feet were starting to go numb.”

“Long day, Sayuri?”

“Not so much,” said the short girl with the bright red bob next to her. “Just busy. I think they’re here for the start of cherry blossom season.”

“Right,” said Kagome. She had almost forgotten. It was early April, and most years, tourists flooded the area to see the rivers of pink flowers along Tokyo’s sidewalks and streets. There were brilliant colors, the light floral scent in the air, families and couples strolling about, picnics on the grass. There had been a time where she thought— foolishly she’d thought— that a clawed hand might be folded in with hers, and that she’d spend the afternoons picking pink blossoms caught in his silver hair.

“Right,” she breathed.

Sayuki stared at her. “You alright there, Kagome?”

Kagome shook her head as if to erase the image, inhaled, then smiled at the bubbly girl. “Yeah, I’m ok.”

“Good. Keep your wits about you tonight. I can already sense some of those guys are gonna get rowdy.”

“Thanks for the heads up.”

Sayuki smiled and patted Kagome’s shoulder in response, then headed towards the kitchen.

 _Rowdy_. _Fantastic. What I wouldn’t give to fight demons again_ , she thought. Easier than dodging pickup lines from drunken assholes.

Sayuki had not been lying about the state of the patrons at the bar. Not a barstool was left empty, and on each seat was someone throwing back shots or asking for another beer. The counter was trashed; liquor and salt and rogue French fries littered the place. The majority of the patrons appeared to be foreigners, possibly some European, but others definitely American. She could tell by how loudly they shouted drink orders.

“You hanging in there?” one of her fellow bartenders shouted at her a few hours into the shift. It had been nonstop madness since she’d stepped behind the bar. Her friend was himself balancing about nine beers on a tray to carry out to a table.

“Yep,” said Kagome, taking a signed receipt from a customer with a smile. “You?” The waiter nodded. Kagome knew she was lucky to have coworkers that checked up on her. “Good! Hope it stays that way—”

“Hope WHAT stays WHAT way, beautiful?” said a very drunken man leaning over the bar. His hair was slicked back from sweat and an empty glass hovered above the table in his unsteady hand. “I hope you stay here.. ALL night long…”

Kagome couldn’t help but recoil. He was practically drooling on the counter, and that was possibly the worst attempt at a pick up she had ever heard. She attempted to ignore him and asked a newcomer what they wanted a few seats down.

“HEY!” the man shouted, and multiple people sitting near him turned to look at him. “I was talkin to you,” he slurred, eyes half-lidded. “Waitress lady.”

As if there was any question who he was talking to. He was there alone from what she could tell, and his eyes had been on her chest for half her shift. Kagome figured she better get this over with.

“Sir, please don’t yell at the bar. It disturbs the other patrons.”

“Why don’t YOU come sit on my lap and make me,” the man said, licking his lips. Ok, that was over the line. She stepped back and was about ready to round the bar and hail her backup when someone stepped up behind the man dramatically. At first, she couldn’t make out his features with the lighting in the bar, but he was definitely tall, and definitely pissed. This was not looking good.

“Hey asshole!,” the tall man said, and Kagome narrowed her eyes. Who was this man? He was wearing a slouchy knitted hipster hat and had red bangs that brushed over his forehead. She felt like she had seen him before, but she couldn’t quite place him. Maybe he’d been a customer before? His green eyes glared at the drunken man, freckles dotting the nose in between. His voice she couldn’t place, but there was _something_ about him.

“Why don’t you leave her alone?”

The drunken man spun around and Kagome stepped back, nearly knocking glasses over on the back counter as she did so. This was about to get way out of hand.

Her first thought was that she did not need someone defending her, that she was about to tear the asshole a new one. Nine times out of ten these guys pretended to be knights in shining armor, then turned around, and suggested that she “owed” them. But this man was different somehow. He was so defensive, so _angry_. It reminded her of someone else’s anger. _His_ anger. It wasn’t him, but it felt like something else she had tried to forget a long, long time ago.

Then his eyes met hers, and it was something that could not possibly be.

This time she did back into the counter and glasses shattered, much like her perception of her own reality.

“Shippo?!” she cried out as the drunken man swung at her savior. The tall man— the man who was possibly, maybe, could it be Shippo?— dodged the attempted punch as easily as if the man had been moving in slow motion. He smirked arrogantly, a very familiar smirk, as the drunken man tried again. Shippo side-stepped the man’s second attempt at an attack and the drunken man growled.

“I’m gonna kick your ass, you little shit!”

“If I’m little, then what does that make you?”

The drunkard howled in anger, surged forward, and Shippo once again stepped to the side, this time his hands behind his back. The man landed face first into the barstool he’d been sitting on before sinking to the floor in unconscious defeat. Shippo then held his hands up, and Kagome could see the pointed tips of his nails. A shit-eating grin was plastered on his face, and there was an innocent look in his eyes. “I swear, I didn’t touch the guy.” A few of the patrons applauded as Shippo took a mock bow, then looked up at Kagome, green eyes shining. “Kagome,” he breathed as he stood up. “I finally found you!”

Kagome felt so shocked she could barely move. Thoughts flew through her mind so fast she couldn’t catch a single one. Some of them about Shippo, others about the well, but one word repeated itself over and over and over again.

_Inuyasha._

It was the last word that she remembered thinking before her vision went black, and she fell to the floor.

When she woke up, she smelled something soft and floral. _Chamomile_ , the name whispered itself in her head. _Like what mama makes_. Her eyes blinked open slowly, and she found herself staring at the pale ceiling of her bedroom. Underneath her she felt the soft sheets of her bed, the same pink sheets she’d always had, and never had the heart to replace.

How had she gotten there? Was it, could it have all been a dream? Or perhaps some form of a nightmare? She’d had them before, though they’d never involved an adult version of Shippo. She sat up and instantly, her head began to pound on the left side. She lifted a hand to her head and felt a bump. She’d definitely hit her head, so she probably fell, but otherwise she felt fine.

Maybe it had all been a dream. She’d given up on hope so long ago.

It was then that her door creaked open, and her mother stood in the doorway, her lips pursed. Her expression was pitying, but concerned as well, as if she wasn’t sure what to say. The age lines tugged at the corners of her lips and her eyes.

“Kagome, dear,” she said. “We have a… a visitor.”

Her heart dropped into her stomach.

“We do?”  
“He brought you home… said you hit your head at work. Are you okay?”  
“Yeah, momma,” she said, her hand leaving her hand. She braced herself to jump off of her bed.

“He’s still here?”  
“Yes. He’s saying quite a few things, though I’m not sure what to make of them. He’s downstairs at the table… your brother is keeping him company.”

Oh.

“And it’s just him? There’s no one else?”  
Her mother frowned for a split second, before relaxing her expression. “Yes, just him. Were you expecting anyone else?”

“No,” Kagome said, the tension that had been building in her body slowly releasing. “No, I guess not.”

At the kitchen table was the man that called himself Shippo, elbows resting on the table top, sipping his chamomile tea. His eyes were wide and wandering around the room as if taking in every detail. Souta sat across from him with a suspicious glare.

“So you know my sister from the past,”

“Yep.”

“But you’re not _from_ the past.”

“Nope.”

Souta scoffed. “Dude, that would make you hundreds of years old. You barely look twenty.”

“Yep,” Shippo responded, taking another sip of his tea, all of the sudden appearing very interested in the liquid it contained. He glanced up as Kagome followed her mother down the stairs.

“Kagome!”

He leapt to his feet, and Souta quickly followed.

“Kagome, this guy brought you home from the bar, and he’s saying he knows you from the Feudal era.”

Kagome nodded and looked at Shippo in the clearer light of her family living room. He was tall, though maybe not as tall as he had seemed in the darkness of the bar. His hair was sandy red and pulled back into a short ponytail. His beanie was removed, and she could just make out the pointed tips of his ears. Freckles spotted his face and when he smiled, she could make out the tips of his fangs. He was dressed unassumingly: a red Henley, dark jeans, tan solid boots. He looked so, so strange in modern clothes. A side bag in the corner of the room that wasn’t Souta’s or hers.

It was him. There was no doubt in her mind.

“Shippo,” she said, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. He stepped towards her and gave her a sudden, fierce hug, which she returned with all the strength she could muster. Tears flowed unbidden, staining his shirt, but he didn’t seem to mind. Shippo himself sniffled in her ear and as she attempted to step back, at first, he refused to let her go.

“Kagome,” he murmured in between sniffles. “I missed you so, so much.” Then he finally pulled back and stared at her, both of their cheeks stained with tears. “I can’t believe I finally found you.”

“I,” she started, words caught in her throat. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Here, dears, sit down and I’ll make some more tea,” said her mother, who had visibly relaxed now that it was clear Kagome knew who the strange man in her house was. Souta, too, had softened somewhat, but was still clearly a bit suspicious as they all sat down at the living room table.

“Kagome, I’ve been looking for you for decades,” Shippo said. “I knew you’d show back up around the 21st century, based on some of the stuff you said when I was a kid which made no sense at the time but makes total sense now. Kinda crazy all the stuff you told us was going to happen!”

Kagome laughed a little, finally relaxing. “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have said all the stuff I did but, you know, no harm no foul right?”

“Definitely,” said Shippo. In so many ways, his little mannerisms were coming back to her now, his cheeriness around her, his fervent dedication to seeing her again. It made sense. “But I had no idea exactly when or where. Especially since I didn’t know your family name--- that was probably the hardest part. Plus, I’ve been in and out of the country for work, so I haven’t had time to really search properly. Anyway, I remembered hearing about that Hojo guy, and I figured if I found him, then maybe I’d find you. I followed him for a few weeks and sure enough! There you were,” Shippo said, beaming. “You were a little older than I remembered, but once I recognized your scent, I knew it _had_ to be you.”

“So, then you followed me into the bar.”

He nodded. “Good thing, too, considering what that guy said to you at the counter.”

“Hold up,” Souta said, “Who said what to my sister at the counter?”

“Something rude, it’s no big deal, Souta,” Kagome said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Since watching his older sister fall apart when she couldn’t go back through the well, he’d been particularly protective of her. It was actually something she had come to rely on— if she ever brought a guy home, Souta would grill him to death, and then she wouldn’t have to endure the awkwardness of breaking things off. “Shippo took care of him.” That seemed to settle her brother back down.

“Yep. Though I wasn’t expecting you to pass out.”

Kagome felt her face burn with embarrassment. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t apologize,” Shippo said, real concern in his voice. “I definitely hadn’t planned on meeting you again like that. I knew it was gonna be a bit of a shock, since it’s been so long and I look so different.”

“You really do,” said Kagome, smiling at him. In a way, she felt like a proud mom, seeing how self-possessed and grown-up he had become. “You’ve grown really handsome and strong, Shippo.”

Now it was his turn to blush, though Kagome could tell he was quite pleased with the compliment. It was the kind of supportive kindness that he always craved from Kagome, though she knew it was really Inuyasha that Shippo wanted to be proud of him.

In the midst of the discussion she had almost— _almost—_ forgotten about him. He whose name she would not speak, or at least, she hadn’t spoken in years.

“Shippo,” she said, and the change in her tone was felt by the whole room. “I was wondering, well, if you had trouble finding me, then why not ask?”

Shippo frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” she felt her voice getting quieter, her heart starting to race. “You know, he— he’s been here before, and he’d probably be able to tell you my family name which would have made it easier.”

At first she thought that her vagueness would make her reference to Inuyasha impossible to understand, but almost immediately, Shippo tensed. He stared once again at his drink, though this time it was not out of boredom; it was out of a sheer need to avoid Kagome’s eyeline.

“Kagome,” he said slowly. “I realize that he hasn’t been to see you since the well closed, and—”

No. She could not hear rejection. Not second hand. Not from him.

“No, no, no, it’s okay, Shippo,” said Kagome, her words flying out of her mouth faster than she had time to process them. “I mean, I get it, it was a long time ago, and he probably forgot all about me. First there was Kikyo, and then there was me, and I’m sure someone else came along. It’s not a problem, I get it, I really and truly understand—”

This time it was Shippo’s turn to cut her off, only he did so by placing one of his long, lanky hands on top of hers.

“Kagome, there never was anyone else. There was only you,” he started, his voice soft, and her heart felt like it stopped. “It was always you for him. All he ever wanted to do was come back to you. But he couldn’t.”

Her heart had already stopped. Now her breathing became shallow and her skin became pale. Every defense she’d thrown up in her mind to excuse his absence— that he didn’t love her, that he was choosing to be away from her, that he’d forgotten about her— they’d all rung hollow, but she’d never allowed herself to admit it. It was much easier to believe that he’d never loved her at all and to build that story up in her head. It was much easier to believe that he chose a life away from her, rather than the choice being made for him.

But Shippo’s next words confirmed what she knew in her heart, what her deepest fear had been, and what she was not able to accept until she heard the words from another.

“He wanted to come back to you, Kagome. But he died.”


	2. two

**TWO**

She heard a sob come from somewhere, some place that couldn’t be herself. She tried to breathe and it felt like inhaling shards of ice. Her family had gone silent; her mother’s hands covered her mouth in shock, and Souta’s fingers dug into the table.

Shippo let the silence sit for a minute. It was clearly not something that was easy for him to talk about either.

“When,” Kagome whispered.

“1945,” said Shippo. “The Japanese-American war. Hiroshima. He was there, trying to stop it all. He— he didn’t make it.”

 _Liar_ , her brain screamed, even though she knew it was the truth. _He has to be lying. A bomb couldn’t take out Inuyasha. He’s too strong, he’s—_

Images of Inuyasha flooded her mind, images that had long been banished for self-preservation. His ears, his eyes, his cocky grin. His laughter, his rage, even glimpses of his love. Then a final image— Inuyasha, battered and bloody and torn apart, laying in a desolate field. His chest unmoving, his eyes open and unblinking. A small trickle of blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. It made her numb. It made her angry.

“Kagome?” Shippo asked, tentatively.

“Why,” she said, not sounding like herself. She still felt out of body, and whatever was in her body had a hardened voice, like some sort of possessive ghoul.

Shippo’s eyes widened at her tone. “I— I’m not sure what—”

“ _Why_ was he there?” she said, a bit softer than a shout. “What was he doing trying to stop a bomb? A war?”

“I don’t know,” Shippo said and she gave him an accusatory look. “Really, I don’t! I was in the Americas at the time trying to get intel. No one knew about the bomb, he probably had no idea until it happened.” He paused and took a deep breath in. “I’m so sorry, Kagome. But you deserved to know. He wouldn’t want you to spend the rest of your life waiting for him.”

“How do you know that?!”

“Because he told me.”

Their conversation hit an impasse. She couldn’t accept the reality that Shippo presented. She could accept a lot— a world where Inuyasha didn’t want her, even a world where he hated her, but not a world without him in it. She dug her nails into her palms. She would not allow it.

“What can I do to bring him back?” she asked to no one in particular. “There’s got to be some way to bring him back.”

Shippo sighed. “I was afraid of this.”

“Of what?”

“That you’d try to find a way to save him, or to bring him back,” he said. “Kagome I’ve tried, so many ways. So many times. There was nothing I could do that didn’t involve dark magic and I knew he would have never wanted to come back that way, so…” Tears welled in his eyes, and he gripped his mug so tight it looked like it was about to crack.

 _Liar_. She could not, would not accept it. _He’s lying. He’s lying. He’s—_

She was begining to hyperventilate, breathing in and out with each accusation in her mind. Her mother rushed to her side and laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“Breathe, sweetie, breath,” her mother said, though she could hear the tears in the older woman’s voice, too. Souta sat at the table staring blankly at the wall.

Shippo’s breath came out stacatto. “Kagome, I’m so sorry.”

She shook her head.

“No,” she whispered again. In the wake of this terrible news, her body rendered inert, her mind began to whirl. She had to do something— anything— to bring him back. A secret dark, desperate part of herself even admitted that she’d try black magic if it came to that. Anything.

But maybe there was something else they could try. Maybe she’d been thinking of things in the wrong direction— always waiting for him to show up in the future. Maybe she had to find him in the past. The well hadn’t opened in seven years, but she’d also thought that was because the jewel had been destroyed. That had been an assumption on her part, but what if— if there was any way—

Without warning, Kagome stood up. “No.”

Shippou sighed, a tear trickling down his freckled cheek. “Kagome, I hate that I had to tell you this.”

“No, no, _NO!_ ” she shouted. “No. I refuse to accept this.”

A little voice in the back of her head reminded her of the stages of grief, denial lighting up in neon, but she brushed it away.

She was Kagome fucking Higurashi. She had defeated Naraku, destroyed the Shikon jewel. No one and nothing was going to stop her from trying to get Inuyasha back. She walked over to Shippo, feeling a little bad that she’d yelled at him, and sat at his side, rubbing his shoulder as he cried. Instantly, he was the little boy she’d helped raise once again.

“I’m sorry, I know, I know it’s not your fault,” she said, and he sniffed. “But I refuse to accept this until we’ve exhausted all of our options.”

“But Kagome, I’ve tried _everything_.”

“You haven’t tried it with me.”

His eyes blinked open wide, then he looked at her. He nodded.

“I guess… I guess not.”

“Exactly. You’ve got me; I’ve traveled through time before. That’s got to count for something, right?” Foolish hope was dangling a rope for her to cling to. It had been so long since she’d given hope a chance, but it was literally her only option. It was that or say die. And she’d never say die, not when it came to him.

Shippo’s nose was running so he swiped at it with his sleeve. “You know what Kagome? You’re right.” He stood up and. walked to the corner of the room, picking up his side bag.

“Inuyasha never gave up on us and I just found you so maybe…”

From the bag he produced a large piece of red fabric. It was heavy, old, and she would recognize it anywhere.

It was the robe of the firerat.

Seeing it in person made everything solidify. It was all too real. Shippo passed the robe to her and she took it gingerly between her hands. It was heavier than she remembered, but just as thick and bright red. Someone had folded it neatly into a square a long time ago, because it was creased where it was folded; no one had used it in ages.

Inuyasha would never have left it like this.

She stared at it for a few seconds before looking back at Shippo. His green eyes were bright, as if he was starting to tear up again.

“This was one of the reasons I wanted to see you. To give you this. I know Inuyasha would have wanted you to have it. It’s his family heirloom so… maybe if you were wearing this, you could get to him somehow? Like the well maybe? Maybe it would sense something of the two of you, how you traveled through it before together.” He shrugged. “Maybe it could take you back.”

She hugged the fabric to her chest. That was a lot of maybes with no certain outcome. How much failure could one heart take? How much hope could be dashed before she never hoped again?

But this was the last option. It had been years since she’d last tried… maybe something had changed. Maybe she could do it again.

Too many maybes.

From the kitchen doorway, her mother approached her and kneeled down beside her daughter. She rested a hand on Kagome’s shoulder.

“Kagome,” she said. “I can’t tell you what to do. You’ve grown into this beautiful, intelligent, kind, and loving person that I am so, so proud of. So no matter what you decide to do, your brother and I will support you.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Souta nod. “But for your own heart, you must try to reach him again.”

“Try, Kagome,” added Souta from across the table. “You gotta try and give it another chance.”

Her chest felt like it would burst with love for her family. They’d seen what she had gone through when the well would not reopen and how much she had suffered. They still saw it. She didn’t know what would happen if she tried again, if she went back, if she’d ever be able to come back home, and they knew it. But they told her to try. She was keenly aware of how lucky she was to have such a family.

“Thanks, mama. Thanks, Souta,” she said, her eyes unable to produce anymore tears. “I love you.”  
“We love you, Kagome.”

“Love you, sis.”

At this familial display of love, Shippo stood sheepishly in the corner, clearly feeling very awkward and out of place.

“Kagome, I don’t want you to get your hopes up too much. I-I’m not sure this is gonna work. I was never the smart one— crafty, maybe, but not smart. I don’t have any proof, just a hunch.”

Kagome stood up and unfolded the firerat. She placed her arms through it almost with reverence, and tied it over her dark green tshirt and jeans.

“Shippo, you’re smarter than you know; you always were,” said Kagome as she tugged on the edges of the firerat. “I believe in you.”

She did, too. She just hoped it was enough.

Moments later, they stood at the edge of the well, all peering down into its depths. It looked the same as Kagome remembered it did, all those years ago. She wondered if her mother had been tending to the upkeep, since she herself hadn’t set foot near it in a long time. She wouldn’t put it past her mother to be so thoughtful.

“Sooo… what happens now?” asked Shippo. “Is it s’posed to glow or something?”

She wasn’t sure. She couldn’t be sure. It had always happened so naturally for her back then. And then, no matter how hard she had willed it to work, it just stopped.

“Maybe you should try chanting at it or something?” Souta offered. Kagome looked at him with disbelief.

“Actually, Souta might not be far off, in a strange way,” her mother offered.

“Chanting? Mama, you know that won’t work. What would I even chant?”

“Maybe not chanting, Kagome, but something spiritual. Something to do with your powers.”

Kagome sighed. Her spiritual powers, or whatever they had been, had disappeared the moment the jewel was gone. She’d tried to practice purification until she was blue in the face, but nothing worked. She’d even summoned said powers to try and open the well before, but nothing resulted.

But her mother seemed certain. “Souta, go get Kagome’s bow and arrow from the shed.” Souta nodded and ran out.

Kagome sighed. “How is that going to help?” She hadn’t used the think in years.

“It was your ties to the jewel that gave you your spiritual powers Kagome, and that same jewel was what opened the well,” her mother said, pensive. “Spiritual powers never truly vanish as long as the soul is intact. Something your grandfather used to say. So the jewel might be gone, but those powers should still be within you.

“And when you were closed off from Inuyasha initially, when the jewel was destroyed, it would make sense that your spiritual powers would go dormant, wouldn’t it? To protect the rest of your soul?”

Shippo began to nod, following much better than Kagome could herself at that point. “So what you’re saying is, it’s likely that Kagome’s soul has had time to heal, so her spiritual powers should be back,”

“And I have purpose now, too,” Kagome murmured. Everything was starting to click. “Before I just wanted to get back for myself, but now I have something bigger,” she said. “I have to save him.”

Her mother nodded and Souta ran in with her bow and a few spare arrows. She strapped the quiver to her back, about ten arrows shoved inside with god knew how much dust. She plucked one arrow out and brushed it off. The bow and arrow rested familiarly (if a bit uncomfortably) in her hands.

“Shoot into the well, Kagome,” her mother said, a determination like Kagome had never seen in her eyes. A kind of fire. Sometimes her mother just _knew_ things and Kagome prayed that this was one of those times. She closed her eyes.

 _Please take me to Inuyasha,_ she begged. _Wherever or whenever he is, I don’t care, just please just let me be with him. Let me try to save him._

To everyone’s surprise, the well began to glow. She almost fell back in shock. It was not the pink glow that she was familiar with; rather it was blood red, much like the firerat itself. But she didn’t care what the color was. It was glowing. And if it was glowing, then it was working, and if it was working, then she had precious moments to jump.

She looked once more at her mother and brother, and at Shippo, who looked as anxious as the others. She wanted to give them a hug or something, but she knew her window was limited. She wanted to visit her father’s and grandfather’s graves once more and pray over them. There was a number of things she should do— tell her boss she was quitting, say goodbye to her friends, stop her phone bill, but she could not wait. And really, more than anything, she didn’t want to wait. She’d waited too many years as it was. It had to be now.

In one careful stroke, as if her muscles remembered, she pulled the arrow back, aiming down toward the center of the well, and she let it fly.

Then she felt pulled, almost by a string, through time and space once more.

She realized a few things at the same time:

  1. 1\. She was not a teenager anymore. She felt every jerk and pull as she had traveled through time and space, and she felt it in her joints the most.
  2. 2\. There was water at the bottom of this well. Not a ton, but she was still soaking wet from the waist down.
  3. 3\. She was, almost certainly, not in Feudal Japan.



For one, the smell of the air hit her almost immediately. It was smoky, with a hint of sulfur, and the water smelled of algae. It was not the fresh air of the past that she was used to. Nor was is the air of the modern day, which she supposed meant that she had at least traveled to _some_ other point in time.

She looked up, and there was a bucket hanging above her, set on a pulley. And, thank god, some sort of rope ladder. She tugged on it; it felt secure, like it could probably bear her weight. It was not going to be fun if it didn’t. On her shoulder she felt the quiver sag with the weight of excess water; she took the arrows out and emptied it before placing them back. Nine arrows now. It would have to be enough.

With careful placement of her feet and hands, she gripped the slimy rope and hoisted herself up the ladder. She was still wearing her non-slip shoes that she wore for work— great for restaurants, but terrible for running— but they seemed to be allowing her to step more firmly on the ropes and she continued to climb. She was cold, sore, and starting to realize that up above it was raining, but she pressed on. As if things like that could keep her from Inuyasha.

But she couldn’t think about him now. Not yet. She’d lose all focus. She already knew where she was, but what she really needed to know was _when_ she was. Then she could focus on finding him.

When she was finally at the top of the well, she pulled herself over the wall and sank into the soft ground below. It was grassy, and the well was open to the sky. All around her were signs of familiarity—her house, the entrance to the shrine—but they were different, somehow. Newer. Brighter, even in the twilight she’d arrived in. The sun was setting behind the trees, and while the sky above was clouded over, she noticed smoke, too, off in the distance, coloring the golden pink sunset with pillars of grey. She inhaled deeply. Still the smell of smoke. Still no idea when she was.

Only, maybe she had a bit more of an idea than before. If her house was newer, the shrine was newer, then she was sometime before the 21st century.

She prayed she was early enough to save him.

The house itself was dark except for a candle in one of the windows. She knew it had taken the Higurashis a while before modernizing the shrine, even though the rest of Tokyo had modernized much quicker. They’d always had a respect for the old ways in the family. Her grandfather had made sure to pass that on.

It was then that she heard a door shut on the other side of the house, the one with the screen that was perpetually ripping in her time. It shut with finality as she heard a young boy shout out:

“I’m going for water, papa!”

No. No, no, no, she could not be seen! Not yet!

She scrambled to the side of the well facing away from the house, her heart racing. She still had no idea what she was walking into, and she couldn’t afford to get sidetracked.

She listened as the child padded out to the well. As he pulled, the bucket sank lower, and so did Kagome. She wanted to melt into the ground if possible. Unfortunately, she sank too low, and her quiver of arrows shifted, making a subtle, yet obvious noise. The pulley stopped.

 _Shit_.

“Who are you?”

She looked over to her left at a boy who was no older than 7 years old. He wore a simple, handmade set of shirt and pants in a color that was difficult to make out in the twilight. His brow was furrowed, but it was not in anger; more confusion than anything else. He put his hands on his hips. For a child, he meant business.

Kagome could only imagine what she looked like to him. A strange woman, in strange clothes, half wet, nearly laying on the ground behind his family well.

“Uh, hi,” she said. “I’m Kagome. Who are you?”

“Kazuo,” he said, matter-of-factly. “Higurashi Kazuo.”

Higurashi Kazuo was her grandfather’s name. Did that mean… _could_ that mean…

“Nice to meet you, Kazuo,” Kagome said, nearly trembling. _Grandfather…_ “Can I ask you a question?”

“Well, mama said it was bad to talk to strangers.”

“She’s right,” said Kagome, starting to sit up very slowly, so as not to scare the boy. He puffed his chest out as she sat up a bit more. “But we’re not strangers, are we? I know your name.”

“Yeah, cause I TOLD you,” he said. Kagome almost laughed. If she’d known what a snotty brat her grandfather had been, she would have teased him about it. She supposed his spirit was back in the future somewhere, having a laugh over the entire ordeal. Kagome smiled.

“Whatcha smiling about?”

“Oh, nothing,” said Kagome. “I only have one question for you, then I promise I’ll leave you alone Kazuo.”

“Hmm,” he hummed, clearly deciding between letting her ask the question or ratting out her presence to his family. Thankfully, he settled on the former. “Fine. ONE question. Then you leave. Papa said not to trust anyone these days.”

“Your papa sounds like a smart man,” Kagome said. “My question is: can you tell me what the date is?”

“The date?”

“Yes.”

“But that’s so easy!” he said, almost disappointed. “Fine. The date is July 31, 1945.”

Her heart skidded to a stop. July 31. 1945. She knew exactly when she was. She was one week before the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

One week. She only had one week to find Inuyasha and save him.

A million thoughts, a million questions, raced in her mind, but before she could open her mouth, Kazuo spoke.

“I answered your question lady. Now leave before I tell my mama and papa.”

Kagome nodded and stood up, keeping an eye on the house behind the boy. The lone candle continued to flicker in the kitchen window.

“Thank you, Kazuo,” she bowed. This surprised the boy. “May you and your family prosper.”

The boy said nothing; only picked up the bucket and ran back into the house. The slamming of the screen door was echoed by the sound of thunder in the distance. A summer storm was building as the sun continued to set.

 _Now_ what was she supposed to do?

She stepped lightly down the shrine stairs to where she knew she would reach the road. The trees were still as looming as ever, and she almost felt like they were protecting her as she flew down the steps. She wished that protected feeling would last longer; once she reached the road, she wasn’t sure what she would see.

What she did see, she wasn’t sure anything could have prepared her for. Whatever house or building had been across the street had caved in from something, and it wasn’t alone. Up and down the road were unfamiliar structures, dilapidated, falling down, blown in, covered in ash and dust. What had happened, she could only guess. She knew that there had been a great earthquake in the 1920s that had really sent Japan into an economic spiral, killing hundreds of thousands. Then the bombings associated with the war, which, for all she knew, were still happening. Perhaps that’s what the plumes of smoke were from.

But she couldn’t stay long enough to contemplate. She had to get somewhere, anywhere, to spend the night. With the storm rolling in, she figured she might be better off going into the city, where there would hopefully be a building that wasn’t falling down, or perhaps a kind family that was willing to let her stay the night. Just somewhere to get her through until the morning. Then she could focus on what she really needed to do.

Seven days. She only had _seven days_.

Her mind wandered as she walked towards the city on the side of the graveled road, her shoes squeaking from still being wet. She’d have blisters soon, she knew, but she couldn’t think about that. She had to keep moving.

How should she even begin to go about finding him? Was there some way to get his attention? Maybe hunt down a demon? Or maybe she should try and use her spiritual powers to sense demonic energy. She’d never been as good at that as she was at detecting the jewel shards, but for him, she had to try.

Maybe he wasn’t in Tokyo at all. Maybe he was already in Hiroshima. How would she know? How would she be able to save him if she couldn’t even find him?

The sky darkened and the thunder grew closer. As she began to reach a more populated, un-damaged part of the city, she noticed lit kerosene lamps, throwing just enough light for her to see her next step. Soft rain began to fall, and while the firerat kept most of her warm, her legs, feet, and hands felt bone-cold. She’d never fully dried off in the first place.

He could be in Hiroshima, but her hunch was that he was in Tokyo. If he stayed at all close to where Kaede had resided— where she presumed Miroku and Sango would eventually settle down, if they ever finally married, the lovebirds— then he should still be in the area. But what would he be doing? She tried to picture Inuyasha in various jobs, and the images seemed almost comical, except for the ones involving physical labor.

She was caught in her thoughts of him as a steel worker, or a mechanic, when she began to feel like she was not alone. Behind her she felt one presence, then multiple presences, keeping a close but plausibly innocent distance. Her pace sped up only a little, so as not to make it look like she realized they were there. But they knew she was on to them, somehow, because their footsteps carried faster, too. As they all sped up, the rain began to fall harder, until it was pouring buckets, soaking through even the material of the firerat. By the time she thought _run_ , they were already almost upon her. As she turned to round an alleyway, she felt a large hand grab the collar of her robe and lift her up off the ground, slamming her into the brick foundation of the building next to them.

“Well this one looks a little odd, don’t you think boys? Especially for a priestess.”

Her head throbbed as she opened her eyes to look at her attacker through rain drops dripping from her eyelashes. Red irises leered back at her as the man held a blade to her throat. Behind him were others with the same, red eyes. Though it was dark, they could clearly see just fine, as their eyes roamed her body.

Of course it would be demons that found her.

“You lost, priestess?” hissed the man holding the blade. “Your aura was so bright and scared, I’m surprised we actually got to you first.”

“Lucky us,” muttered another one of the gang from behind. Someone chuckled. Kagome swallowed hard.

“Let me go,” she said firmly. She was scared, sure, but the truth was she just didn’t have time for something like this. She had to come up with a plan to find Inuyasha.

“Or what?” hissed her main attacker. A reptilian forked tongue flicked out at her, nearly grazing her skin. “You gonna purify me with those puny arrows? Please.” Somewhere behind him, she heard what sounded like a gun being cocked. “You aint got shit, priestess. So you’re going to come with us and let us feed off your energy, then your body, until all that’s left is bones and hair.” His tongue flicked again, and she tried not to flinch. Was this seriously happening? With all that she had to do? An irrational anger gripped her and she grit her teeth.

“Where the hell do you get off?” Kagome shouted over the rain, aware of the blade pressing ever deeper into her skin. It was a dull blade, but enough to cut if he applied enough pressure. She tried not to be terrified. She had no _time_ to be terrified. “Is this your idea of a night out? You and the boys get together, go find some innocent person and eat them? Don’t you have better things to do? Isn’t there a _war_ going on?”

The demon blinked at first, then chuckled. He continued to laugh, louder and louder until his whole troop joined in the raucous laughter.

“You know, she’s pretty entertaining, boss,” said one of the demons as the laughter died down. “We could use some entertainment.”

“But we could use the energy and the meat more, Joben,” answered their leader. “Besides, we’re gonna need our strength for when the real war starts.”

Real war? Kagome frowned. The way she was pinned to the wall, the blade, it had all started to cut off her oxygen, but she fought the oncoming unconsciousness as hard as she could. “What real war? Isn’t there already one going on?”

“Human bitch,” spat the leader as he slammed her head back into the brick, little lights bursting behind her eyelids. “You have no idea what real war looks like. But you will.” He removed the blade from her throat, only to hold it high above his head. “In hell.”

Kagome wanted to cry. Again. Why, why was this happening? Why was she sent through time again by the well only to get killed and eaten and god _knew_ what else by these snake demons? She was so close, she knew it. So close to finding him. To seeing him again. She could practically feel him close, and she knew death was coming. _Just once,_ she wished, prayed, begged to any deity that would listen. _I just want to see him one more time._

She closed her eyes and braced herself for the blow of the blade, only to be dropped unceremoniously to the ground. She blinked. What—

Above her was the demon that had been about to kill her, his arms still postured. He was staring at the wall. The only warning she got was a gagging noise before the demon’s head slipped clean off his neck and fell with a splash at her feet. She looked back up into the night, having trouble making anything out in the dark and the rain. A low grumble pierced through the rain.

“The only ones goin to hell will be you.”

She was vaguely aware of what was happening above her, but it was hard to see, hard to think, what with the dark, the rain, with her head having been smashed into the brick. Blades clashed, a gun went off, there were shouts and screeches and more unpleasant gurgling noises. But the sound of that voice—such a familiar voice that she dared not wish again for fear that she’d break the reverie. The demon’s severed head sat in a puddle next to her, staring at her with unseeing eyes, and she could only think one thought: if this was a nightmare, then she hoped it would never end. Because she knew that voice.

That could only be Inuyasha.

She sobbed, or heaved; she couldn’t be sure what was rain and what was tears. But as the sounds of violence petered out, she saw a towering figure standing above her. She could barely see him in the dark, but she’d know him anywhere, even deaf and blind.

“I—Inu—”

“Who are you?” he asked harshly. “Where did you get that robe?”

“I—” She had to stop crying so she could speak, she had to. “Inuyasha. It’s me. It’s—”

“Don’t fucking lie to me!” he shouted, a quiver in his voice. “I’ve been tricked too many times. How _dare_ you take her form? I should kill you for even _speaking_ with her voice.”

“Inuyasha, I—” what could she do? How could she show him that she was who she said she was? She still couldn’t see his face, let alone what he was wearing, but she had an idea. One last, desperate idea as she felt her tired, injured brain slip in and out of consciousness. She had to fight it. She had to show him.

“Inuyasha!” she shouted over the rain in defiance. “Sit, boy!”

A bright light flashed like lightning in the storm, and he crashed to the ground in front of her. She exhaled, almost whimpering. If this didn’t work, she wasn’t sure how she’d show him.

At least she’d been able to see him one last time.

The full effects of her head being slammed into the wall were starting to take hold. She had a concussion at the very least, brain damage at the worst. The errant thought of how annoying it was to keep passing out flit about in her mind, before she saw Inuyasha rise to his forearms, shorter hair dripping.

The world was swimming, but he was still. His golden eyes were wide as full moons, and his lips parted in shock, revealing the tips of canines. His silver hair shone bright even in the rain, and his ears were pointed back. She was sure he knew it was her, now. So she smiled, laughed lightly, the dizzy feeling finally taking hold as he reached toward her. The last thing she heard was her name whispered on his lips.


	3. three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for such kind reviews. I'm still blown away by the fact that people enjoy what I write, but really, that's all I could ever ask for. So this one is for you guys.
> 
> Also, here's where the original characters start to come in. I hope you like them, and kudos to whoever can tell me where Aomame's name comes from. ;)

**THREE**

“Shhh, shh, shh, quiet Ao!”

“ _You_ be quiet, Sho, I’m not the one being loud here!”

“Both of you, shut the fuck up and let her rest. You got an extra set of pajamas, Aomame?”

The first thing she noticed was that she had the _worst_ headache. She’d been hungover before, but never like this. Kagome wondered what in the hell she had been drinking last night to make her head hurt this much. But then there was this steady, soothing sensation that something was stroking her hair. She opened her eyes, half expecting to be crashing on some coworker’s couch, only to realize she was in a room that was completely unfamiliar with two complete strangers sitting right above her.

Her first instinct was to scream, but her head hurt way too much for that. Instead she widened her eyes, taking in as much of her area as she could. She was on a couch, but it was not exactly comfortable. Someone, a woman, was kneeling by her head, running her nails through Kagome’s hair. That must have been what she had been feeling. Her brows furrowed at the unfamiliar woman.

“Hi, honey,” whispered the woman. She had a chiseled face and large lips; she must have been in her early forties, maybe late thirties, little slivers of silver throughout her dark hair. Her fingers were long and thin as they combed through strands of her hair. “You don’t have to be scared. You’re safe here.”

“Wh-who.” Kagome managed to say, suddenly realizing her mouth was very dry. As if reading her mind, a man came over from somewhere, another room maybe, with a cup of what she hoped was water.

“I’m Aomame, and this is Shoichi,” said the woman, Aomame. Kagome wasn’t quite sure she heard her right— Aomame? Green bean?— but chalked it up to the bump on her head. The man next to her, a shorter man with similarly large lips handed his sister the glass as Kagome attempted to sit up. The man was similar in age, maybe a bit younger, but they were definitely related.

Who were these people? And where was Inuyasha?

The shorter man named Shoichi cleared his throat. “We’re er— uh— roomates of Inuyasha.”

Aomame nodded. “You’re safe here, dear,” she repeated. “We’re gonna get you feeling better in no time.”

Across the room she noticed few decorations. A single coffee cup on the table, a piece of paper next to it. Something framed on the wall. One open doorway and one closed door, presumably to the outside. In the quiet she could still hear the rain tapping on the roof, and the wind had picked up, making eerie moaning sounds through the wood and metal. No Inuyasha, though.

As she leaned on her right elbow in an attempt to prop herself up, head throbbing with every breath, she saw him. Standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. Looking at her with the most confused, slightly angry expression.

He was clearly himself; all lean muscle through and through, but she could tell he had aged a bit, appearing much like herself, probably passing for early twenties. He wore a simple grey shirt and simple khaki pants with his submission beads; not appearing modern exactly, but she supposed it was modern in the 1940s, maybe. His hair, still stunning silver, had been cut short, slicked to the side to fit in better with the times, but his ears poked through the almost-perfectly coiffed locks. She felt her lips part, parched as she looked at him. What he was frowning at was anyone’s guess; maybe because she sat him, or maybe he still didn’t think it was her, or maybe she looked terrible. She wouldn’t be surprised if she did, but strangely she didn’t care. He didn’t look terrible. He looked perfect. She almost didn’t feel it when Aomame handed her the glass of water.  
“Maybe not the tall glass of water you were looking for,” the woman murmured before moving back, allowing Kagome a full view of the man she’d traveled through time for. Again.

“Inuyasha,” she breathed, her voice still hoarse. “I found you.”

“Kagome,” he said carefully, his posture still tense. She watched him close his eyes and inhale slowly as if trying to subdue mounting irritation. Then he opened his eyes, and she saw the frustration he’d been trying to suppress set free.

“What are you doing here?” he said, his voice stone.

She blinked. …what?

“I—I thought—”

“You thought what? That it was a good idea to come find me in the middle of a fucking _war?_ ” his tone rose as he uncrossed his arms, fists clenched. “That it was a good idea to go walking around the streets of Tokyo by yourself at night, in the rain, with a couple of arrows to defend yourself?”  
“I had to find you.”

“No you didn’t, Kagome. The streets are crawling with demon gangs, soldiers, and government officials. It’s a goddamn miracle you weren’t killed or worse.”

He was mad. He was worried. But his tone still made her tear up. Did he not realize what she’d been through to get back to him? The years she’d spent longing for him? How completely exhausted she was? He must have sensed her sadness or noticed her tears, because his expression softened. Slowly, he took the few steps towards the couch, and she noticed scuffed up military boots. Then he kneeled before her, frustration rapidly dissipating. He leaned in until his face was a hand’s width from hers, and she could smell him again, and he smelled so good, so much like _him,_ like sweat and the woods and adventure. She didn’t even realize how much she missed the smell of him, but now that she could smell him, see him, now that he was here… _I can die happy_ , she thought.

He closed his eyes and inhaled like he hadn’t truly breathed in years. “Shit, Kagome, why couldn’t you have just _waited_ for me.”

“I did”, she whispered, staring at him, re-memorizing every inch of skin that had become blurry in her memory. “I waited and waited. For years. I was sure you’d forgotten me or given up on me—” he went to protest, but she continued, “—but then I found out why.”

He looked at her expectantly.

“Shippo finally found me. He told me you were— that you—” Why was this so hard to say even now, with him living and breathing right in front of her? Maybe she still didn’t feel like it was real. If she said it outloud, that was acknowledging the fact that it happened, and she would not make that even a possibility. “He said you died.”

She heard a gasp from Shoichi behind him. Inuyasha’s eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed.

“Kagome,” he said, and she wished she could bottle the sound. “How long?”

“What?”

“How long were you waiting?”

She took a deep breath, and her exhale came out stilted. Had he missed the part where she said he died? “Seven years.”

“Wait,” said Shoichi from behind, “Are you from the future?”

Aomame rolled her eyes. “Please forgive my brother, he’s not so quick on the uptake.” She lightly smacked him upside the head. “Of course she is, idiot, look at her! You ever see anyone dressed like that walking around the old prefecture?”

That reminded her. She reluctantly tore her eyes from Inuyasha’s face to her body. She was still wearing his firerat and her clothes from the future. Someone had removed her shoes thankfully, but her jeans were still wet and they felt like they were plastered to her body.

“Well sorry if the first thing that comes to mind isn’t ‘oh, she looks funny, she must be a time traveler!’”

“How long was I out?” Kagome asked before the siblings could get further into their argument.

“Inuyasha just brought you home about ten minutes ago,” said Aomame. The woman ran a hand through her hair, exasperated at the situation. “Just marches in, half mad with worry, lays you down on the couch and checks your pulse. Then he started barking at us to get you stuff.”

Inuyasha grunted in irritation and stood up slowly. “Yeah, so where is that stuff?”

“What stuff?”

“The stuff I asked you to get!” barked Inuyasha. “The change of clothes and shit! She’s fucking freezing!”

Aomame sighed and Shoichi went into what was presumably the kitchen. “I’ll make hot tea instead of water then,” the man added as he left the room. It was just the two of them now. Kagome sat up as well as she could.

“I— I can’t believe it,” said Kagome. “I thought… I thought I’d never see you again.”

“Keh.” He crossed his arms again, and she recognized his old emotional armor in the stance. Still, there was a wariness in his expression, almost as if he was having trouble believing this wasn’t a dream, too. “Nothing was going to keep me from seeing you again, Kagome. Thought you would have known that.”

Had she? Deep down, had she still been clinging to the idea that he might come back to her, even after seven years without a word?

“But Shippo said—”

“Little runt says a lot of shit.”

“He’s not so little anymore.”

He turned to look at her, as if starting to actually believe she was telling the truth. He kneeled down in front of her again, searching her face for something. He put a hand on the couch next to her leg, thumb barely grazing her legs, still sheathed in wet jeans.

“We can talk about it later,” he said, his voice low and soothing. It struck her that he was speaking to her a bit like she was a child, like he was afraid he would scare her. “We can talk about everything later. First you need clothes that are dry and warm.” He reached for the firerat, gently pulling it off her left shoulder, when she flinched. Like a reflex, she drew herself further into the firerat. Inuyasha almost looked hurt.

“Kagome, it’s ok. You’re safe now.”

She knew that. She always felt safe in his firerat robe. That’s why it was so hard to let him take it off. Instead of protesting, she relaxed, and he tugged the robe off of her shoulders. She scooched over to free the fabric from under her. He rested the robe over one of his forearms but did not get up. Instead he reached with one clawed finger and gently tucked a half-dry lock of hair behind her ear. His lips pressed into a thin line.

“I have so much to tell you,” she breathed, her heart racing. It was like after all these years, all the growing up and learning she’d had to do to be independent, he still made her feel like she was a teenager.

“I know,” he said, his breath airy. He retracted his hand and stood up. “We’ll talk. But right now, you need to get warm and get some sleep.” He smirked. “Since you’re a weak human, and all.”

Her lips quirked a smile at the call back to his earliest time spent with her, when he was impetuous, haughty, and rude. “Jerk,” she teased with a small smile.

Her smile was soon reflected back at her. “There’s my Kagome.”

 _My Inuyasha_ , she thought, watching him as he left the room and Aomame approached her with a dry set of loose, pajama-like clothes.

By some miracle, she had found him within the first day.

Now she just had to keep him alive.

That night, after she changed and was force-fed some hot tea and stale crackers, Inuyasha demanded that she sleep in his bed while he’d sleep on the couch. She tried to protest, so he lifted her up in his arms and deposited her directly on the bed. Though she wanted to stay awake, stay present, just in case he was some apparition that would disappear, she fell asleep almost the instant her head hit his pillow. It didn’t help that it smelled so much like him, she could almost imagine she was in his embrace.

The next morning, she awoke and almost forgot where she was. It was a simple room, with white walls, wooden floors, and a cracked window. Sunlight shown through and she had to squint. Her head still hurt somewhat, but it was nothing compared to before. There was a cool breeze, though, and tattered cloth made into curtains fluttered in the wind. She was in his bed, or rather, on top of the bed, a number of sheet beneath her, with blankets piled on top of her. Next to her was a nightstand with a single kerosene lamp, unlit, and a glass of water.

It was foreign and strange, but had the underpinnings of a home. It was comforting.

But a slow growing panic began to fill her mind, like a cancer in her thoughts. What if it had all been some sort of strange dream? Sure she had a headache and was in a new room, but what if she had imagined him, imagined all of it?

Her breathing picked up, and she shakily threw off the blankets covering her. She had to know. Staggering towards the doorway, she threw open the door and wandered down the short hallway into the kitchen. There, at the kitchen countertop, stood Aomame, fanning some sort of hot beverage in a ceramic mug. She looked up from her drink and appeared surprised.

“Kagome,” she said. “We weren’t expecting you to be up so early. We thought—”

“Where is he?”

“Inuyasha?” asked Aomame. Kagome nodded enthusiastically and Aomame smirked. “Work. He has to show up, no excuses, or the generals get start to get suspicious.” She lifted the drink to her lips. “He left that red robe for you, though. He wanted you to know that.”

Kagome nodded, wrapping herself in the firerat once more. The weight of it calmed her in an instant.

“When will he be back?”

“Sometime around lunch for a bit of a break, then back to work until nightfall.” Aomame gave Kagome a smile and set her drink back down. “You up for a little girl talk? I’ll make you some tea.”

Kagome nodded and took a seat at the table, uncertain of her next steps. Should she demand to see him anyway? Afterall, they had only six days now until the bomb… the sooner she told him about it, the faster they could get the hell out of dodge. But she doubted there was really any way to get to him now unless she ran out of the apartment and wandered the streets of Tokyo in pajamas and without shoes. If anything, that would piss him off royally.

“You know, you’re rather pretty,” said Aomame, sitting next to her, putting a cup of tea in front of her. It smelled of— what do you know— chamomile. Just like home.

“Thank you,” Kagome responded, both for the tea and for the compliment.

“And nice. I’m just curious how you became so close with Inuyasha,” Aomame said. “He doesn’t exactly have many friends. From what I understand, he’s no where near the jackass he used to be, but still, he’s not the easiest to be around.”

Kagome smiled into her tea. She didn’t exactly like hearing that he didn’t have a lot of friends, but it was good to know some things hadn’t changed in the 400 or so years he’d spent since the Feudal Era.

Four hundred years… it was a miracle he wasn’t a completely different person. That was a long time.

“Oh, he was a jackass, alright,” Kagome said. “But he came around. We hunted the Shikon Jewel together, and defeated a demon named Naraku,” she said, then blew on her tea. How long ago did that seem? Like a whole other lifetime. “He was— is— very important to me.”

Aomame looked surprised. “So you fought with Miroku and Sango?”

Kagome nodded. “Yes. They were dear friends.” She tried not the think about the fact that she’d likely never see them again, but it didn’t work. Images of the slayer and the monk sprung up in her mind aggressively— Sango and Miroku fighting demons, _and_ each other, holding hands, whispering together when they thought Inuyasha and Kagome didn’t notice. Hot baths and chats with Sango, fighting side by side with Miroku… it didn’t seem real that she couldn’t see them again.

But Aomame was smiling brightly. “I was hoping so! They’re my ancestors. Well, me and Shoichi both.”  
Kagome’s eyebrows shot up. She looked at Aomame more in-depth— she definitely didn’t resemble either the monk or the slayer, but there was something in her eye, a sort of twinkle that she definitely recognized from Miroku. And she had Sango’s kindness.

“Is that how you know Inuyasha?” asked Kagome.

“Yep. He’s been Uncle Inu for generations of our family. At least, the family that stayed in Tokyo. He didn’t want to leave Tokyo if he didn’t have to.”

 _Good_ , Kagome thought. _Then maybe he won’t go to Hiroshima._

“I imagine you had something to do with that,” said Aomame.

Kagome frowned. “What do you mean?”

Aomame shrugged. “I dunno. Just always seemed like he was sticking around the area for some particular reason. Like he was waiting for something. Spent a lot of time walking by this one particular shrine about seven or eight kilometers away. We never knew what he was waiting for; when we asked he’d just grumble at us and leave the room. But when he brought you home last night, it was like something in him was… broken.”

“Broken?”

“Yeah, like… like a few wheels short of an automobile. He lost it. I’ve never seen him so emotional. He pulled it together quickly, but the way he looked at you, it was pretty clear he was pretty freaked out. And he doesn’t really _do_ freaked out, you know?”

Kagome nodded. She felt like it made sense— here she was, appearing almost 50 years or so earlier than she was supposed to even be born. By all accounts, it didn’t really make sense. She hadn’t thought about it at the time— it all happened so fast— but why _did_ the well send her there? Why did it start working again? Was it really the combination of the firerat robe and her spiritual power, because that seemed too easy. And why did the well glow red?

“Anyway, where are you from? And why do you look like that if you came from the past?”

She snapped out of her thoughts. “Oh. Well, we met in the past, but I’m not really from there.”

“Where are you from?”

Kagome smiled sheepishly. “The 21st century.”

It was then that something appeared to have broken in Aomame. Her eyes were wider than Kagome thought was possible, almost jutting out of their sockets. Her jaw fell open. She clearly had not expected Kagome to be from _that far_ in the future.

“Tell. Me. _Everything_.”

So Kagome gave her a crash course in 20th century history, skipping over the part about Hiroshima, only mentioning that Japan lost the war. She mentioned the moon landing, which Aomame had a lot of trouble believing, she mentioned computers, even global warming. Somewhere in the back of her mind it occurred to her that it might not be a good idea to tell someone from the past all about the future, but she’d never really thought about it when she was young, and things had still turned out alright. Before they knew it, hours had passed and their tea had grown cold.

It was nice to have someone to talk to like this, someone that reminded her so much of Sango. Even with the age difference it didn’t seem to matter. Kagome spilled the secrets of the future, and Aomame filled her in on what bits she knew of Inuyasha’s past.

“Honestly, he doesn’t talk about his past very much. He’s pretty focused on the war effort. But maybe that’s for the best— when things were calmer, when I was young, he was always so restless. Like he wasn’t calm unless there was something to fight. I wouldn’t say he’s relaxed now, but he’s at least more focused.”

Kagome knew why, too. He couldn’t relax because he’d always been fighting. From his youth, when he was tormented for being what he was, then having to face the world alone, then being betrayed by Kikyo through Naraku… of course he couldn’t trust peace. When had he ever known peace?

“Is he happy? I mean, has he been happy?” That’s all she could really ask for.

“Hmmm.” Aomame said, pensive. “I remember him being happy at family reunions, to an extent. He smiled a couple of times. That’s him happy, right?”

She frowned. This whole time, she had only been thinking of her own pain, her own loneliness. A deep sense of shame bloomed in her chest. She had just assumed that he was happy, wherever he was, since he hadn’t come back for her. That he’d found another source of happiness.

She sighed and looked out the window. The sun was almost at the midpoint of the sky. Where was he?

As if on cue, the front door opened. Inuyasha made his way through the doorway, looking decidedly… different.

His muddy brown boots were the same as the night before, but everything else had changed. His uniform was a long-sleeved olive, a light cotton matching overcoat, and a matching olive-colored hat with a short cap that shaded his eyes. His very brown eyes.

He stepped inside, kicked his boots by the door, then took off his cap. Kagome had never before understood the attraction to men in uniform, but then again, she’d never seen _this_ man in a uniform.

And he looked handsome as hell.

He hung the cap on a rogue hook and brushed his hand through his black hair.

“Inuyasha?” she asked, her voice smaller than usual.

He looked over at her, staring for just a moment longer than strictly necessary, then took off his overcoat, revealing a white tshirt.

“They’re moving ahead with the plan,” he said to no one in particular, though Aomame made a noise of understanding.

“Shoichi figured,” she said. “He’s been out grabbing supplies in case we have to move quickly.”

“Inuyasha,” Kagome said, louder. He looked up, his gaze roaming her face. “You’re human.”

“It’s a charm,” he murmured, twisting something on his middle left finger. In a flash similar to the charmed beads, his hair lightened and his ears reappeared. His eyes turned light gold, and his canines protruded ever-so-slightly from under his top lip. He gave the smallest smirk at the ground, but she didn’t miss it. “Still the same half demon underneath.”

“Good,” said Kagome, smiling. That was more like it. “Though the short hair might grow on me.”

“Don’t get him started,” Aomame said, wagging her finger in warning. “He threw an absolute fit when he had to cut it. Made a scene like he was about to lose an arm.”

“Keh.”

“Why did you have to cut your hair in the first place?”

“Military,” said Inuyasha. He once again gave her a look, hesitating for just a moment, before heading into the kitchen, his shoulders caved in a bit.

Was it just her, or was he trying to keep himself at a distance?

“He’s undercover,” said Aomame. “spying for the demon army, can you believe it? Uncle Inuyasha, professional at espionage…”

“Aomame,” called Inuyasha from the kitchen area.

“Hmm?”

“I need to talk to Kagome,” he said, his back to them, hands braced, almost white-knuckled, on the edge of the kitchen countertop. His voice was edged with danger. “Alone.”

Aomame, to her credit, didn’t flinch or appear scared in any way, though his tone certainly would have warranted it. She simply nodded, stood up, patted Kagome on the shoulder and said, “Good talk,” then she strode on long legs to the back of the apartment towards the bedrooms.

Leaving the two of them alone for the first time since being attacked. Which didn’t really count. So really it was the first time alone together in years.

Her heart was pounding against her chest as she folded her hands in her lap. The room went suddenly cold. Her eyes followed his every move, from pushing himself away from the counter, to his reach for a dirty, chipped mug, then his grip on the kitchen sink as he filled his cup with tap water. He took his time, slow to the point that Kagome was sure it was intentional, drinking his water, sip by sip, pausing in between.

What the hell was he doing?

“Inuyasha, say something.” she said; it was a statement, but also a question. An invitation to say something, because what in the _hell_ was he doing acting this way? Still, he continued as if no one had said anything, sipping his water slowly. Not looking at her. Ignoring her.

She did NOT just travel through time and space again to be ignored!

“Don’t make me ask again,” she warned, and he finally set his cup down. He sighed.

“Kagome,” he said, his voice still low. “I’m trying really hard not to lose my temper here. So just give me a fucking second, will you?”

Lose his temper? Was he still mad?

“Lose your temper?”

“Yeah, _Kagome_ , lose my fucking temper!” he rounded on her, towering over her. His fists were rolled in tight balls, his jaw set. “I still can’t _believe_ you came here.”

“What?!” she shouted. “You’re still angry at me? Why?”

“You came to the past in the middle of the biggest war in the history of humans, by yourself, and wandered around Tokyo at night. You could have died! Why wouldn’t I be pissed off?”

“I didn’t choose to come to this exact time, Inuyasha! I just wanted to see you! To save you!” she said. “I didn’t know what was going to happen when I jumped in the well, it was glowing red!”

He paused, frowning even deeper. “You jumped into the well when it was glowing red.”

“ _Yes!_ ” she said, exasperated. “What don’t you get, Inuyasha? I had to see you! It was seven years and you weren’t there— if there was something, any way to get to you, I had to try!”

She was on her feet now, in the distantly familiar position of confronting him, finger poking at his chest. The difference now being that he had grown another few centimeters or so, and his shoulders had broadened just a bit. And he was wearing a uniform. And he smelled nice. So, so nice.

Damn, she was going to lose her train of thought.

He leaned into her accusatory finger. “Yeah, so it was seven years! Try four hundred! Four hundred _fucking_ years!”

She blinked, speechless. She knew it was long, much longer than she had to wait, but was it really four hundred? The number barely seemed real.

He snorted derisively. “That’s what I thought.”

“It’s not the same, Inuyasha.”

“Yeah, you’re right, it’s a hell of a lot longer!”

“No, it’s not the same, because you _knew_ I was waiting for you!” she yelled, feeling like she wanted to push him. “You knew at the end of those years I would be born and alive and you could find me. But Inuyasha I had no _idea_ where you were! You were just gone! And when you never came for me in the future, and the well wasn’t working, and there was just no sign of you…” she began to tear up. She’d spent so long building up walls to crying, trying to protect herself from the pain, but in one day, at just the mere sight of him, she was more commonly in tears than not. She bit them back and continued, as he glared at her wordlessly. “I thought, well, it’s been hundreds of years. You’d clearly gotten over me. You moved on, and you weren’t coming back.”

His glare faltered. “Kagome…”

“And then Shippo said that you were dead. And I didn’t care anymore if you _had_ moved on— I just want to make sure you were alive. And happy. So what if I came to the middle of a worldwide war?” Treacherous tears welled up in her eyes. “Not ideal, sure, but better I come here now, while I still have the time to save you, than in a week when it’s too late!”

“Kagome… shit, Kagome, don’t cry…” He pulled her into his arms and pressed his cheek into her hair. She felt instantly surrounded by him— by his scent, by his touch, by his voice as he muttered things like “I’m sorry” and “Good to know I still hate it when you cry”. She was wrapped up in him and it felt like a heaven she hadn’t dared to imagine for seven long years. But he was here now. She grabbed his shirt in fists. He let her cry it out, and she felt familiar claws run through her hair, and the sensation was so soothing. She never wanted to leave.

After a moment of quiet, when her tears had died down, she felt him press his nose deeper into her hair and inhale.

“You smell nice, Kagome.”

A slow smile crept onto her face, still buried in his shirt. “You, too.” She said, her voice muffled. “Are you still mad at me?”

“Yes,” he said, “But it’s not like I’m gonna shove you back into the well. Did the well close behind you?”

“Yes,” she said. She wasn’t sure, but she didn’t want him to try and send her back. “But even if it hadn’t, I wouldn’t go back.”

He exhaled, and her hair became warm from his breath. “What am I going to do with you?”

She had a number of answers to that question, some too indecent to put into words, but one that might actually be useful.

“You’re going to listen to what I have to tell you about the future of this war. And you’re going to avoid Hiroshima.”


	4. four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where some of the events of WWII come into play. I tried to be as factual as possible without being political. I tried to be tactful, and I tried to keep it about the characters, not about what certain aspects of the war meant/continue to mean. I won’t drone on about it, but if you have any questions I’d be happy to field them as best as I can.   
> Now back to these two love birds. Poor Inuyasha. Always getting cockblocked.

**FOUR**

They sat at the kitchen table much like Kagome and Aomame had earlier in the day, only their voices were quieter, almost as if they were in some sort of holy place. Kagome grabbed Inuyasha’s hand and laced her fingers through his; joining hands across the table. She felt him absentmindedly scratch a little at her hand, almost like a nervous tic. It didn’t hurt, but it did make her a bit more worried. Since when did Inuyasha get anxious?

She supposed it was probably the content of what they were talking about. She filled him in on some of the earlier parts of the war, parts he had already experienced, but from the future’s perspective. When she mentioned the Rape of Nanjing, he spoke.

“Yeah, heard about that. That’s what got us involved.”

“Us?”

“Me and Shippo,” he said. “Kouga. And a couple of others. Some demons from the mainland sent word of what happened and that’s when we knew shit was going to get real bad if we didn’t intervene.”

She ran her thumb along the edge of his. “What do you mean, intervene?”

“The mainland demons weren’t exactly too thrilled about the massacre of one of their most populated cities. Cut down on their food supply, lots of rotting corpses with nowhere to put them, and some of them actually gave a damn about human lives. That’s when they came to us. They knew Kouga and I were— had human friends, connections. And then there was Sesshomaru.”

Kagome cocked an eyebrow. “You and Kouga I get, but Sesshomaru?”

“Doesn’t make sense to me, but he protected that Rin kid like she was his own,” he said. “She stayed in Kaede’s village for a long while, but he took care of her, brought her things, spent time with her. And when she had kids, he protected her family. Though I’m pretty sure he scared the shit out of her husband.”

Kagome smirked. “That definitely sounds more like him.”

Inuyasha nodded. “So he’d taken to looking after her descendants, just like Shippo and I did with Sango and Miroku’s.”

“That’s really sweet,” said Kagome. _And sounds a little sad_ , she thought, though she couldn’t yet place her finger on why. “I bet Miroku and Sango are very grateful.”

“They lived long, healthy lives. Had a shitload of kids.” He squeezed her hand. “Talked about you all the time. I know Sango missed you.”

“I missed her, too,” Kagome said, then gave a small smile. “Aomame reminds me of her.”

“Yeah…”

She looked at his face, really looked at it, in the full daylight for the first time. His skin, which no doubt had taken a few injuries, was still flawless like before. But there was a weariness that had set in around his eyes, just at the corners. She liked his short hair, she really did, but she missed it long, too. In the early days after the well closed, she’d picture grabbing onto his forelocks and dragging him into a long, heated kiss; a proper one, this time. Now his hair was cut close to the sides of his head, with his remaining hair about 12-15 cm long or so if she had to guess, slicked back.

Yes, some things had changed, but then there were his white ears, which were slightly drooped back, completely at ease. How many times had she thought about touching them again? In how many dreams?

He was looking at her, too, and she wondered what he saw. She hadn’t changed much; her hair was maybe a tad shorter, and she’d filled out a little more, and maybe her face was a bit more contoured. His eyes flickered to her lips before meeting her eyes again.

“Kagome,” he said, more gentle than she’d ever heard it spoken before. “What happens in Hiroshima.”

_How do I begin to explain this?_

“The beginning of the end,” she said. When he frowned, she added, “A nuclear bomb.”

His eyes flashed with fear like she had never seen. He had clearly heard about that kind of bomb, and what it could do. For a moment, she though he might grab her and run. “They won’t.”

“They do.”

“The States?”

“Yes.”

“Do we retaliate?”

“No.”

He exhaled loudly. “At least there’s that. Shippo’s over there.”

She nodded, remembering that older Shippo had mentioned that.

“Tell me more,” he said.

So she told him what she knew, what she’d learned in school, plus what she had researched. Even before learning that the war involved Inuyasha, when she had learned about all the innocent people dead, she became determined to educate herself on the subject. Learning about the bombs made her nauseous, but she felt it was her duty to know; that way she could fully honor the dead when she prayed for them.

When she finished recounting what happened, Inuyasha went quiet. His hand in hers went limp.

“So now you see why I had to come. This is an enemy you can’t beat. Not with a sword or even a gun.”

“Keh,” he said, darkly. “You don’t even know the half of it.”

_Wait, what?_

“What are you talking about, Inuyasha?”

“It all makes sense…” he said, abruptly getting up. He opened one of the kitchen cabinets and reached deep in the back of it, pulling out some documents. He returned to the table, sat down and spread them out before Kagome. Some were type-written, some looked official. Others had almost illegible scribbles.

“Part of the war effort— _our_ war effort— has been finding a demon,” Inuyasha said, pushing some of the papers around, looking for something. Finally, he pulled out a photograph of men in Japanese military uniforms, some clearly high ranking, flanked by other various members of the military. It was a professional photo; they were all stoic, standing stick straight, staring almost menacingly into the camera.

In the center, though, was something a little odd. One of the men had what appeared to be a bright light in his eye. He was standing towards the center, clearly an important figure. His face was angular, his cheekbones sunken. He wasn’t wearing glasses, like some of the others, which made the light in his eye stand out even more. Kagome looked up, and Inuyasha was staring directly at the man.

“There’s a number of demons in the military; this one calls himself Senso.”

“A bit on the nose, isn’t it?” Kagome said. The man was literally calling himself ‘war’.

“He’s dangerous as fuck. Thinks he’s the embodiment of war. In the godly sense.” She watched as Inuyasha’s sneer grew deeper the more he talked about the man. “And he’s got a miko helping him.”

Kagome frowned. “A miko? Why would a miko help a demon?”

“It’s happened before,” he said, and she couldn’t deny that. “But what’s worse is that this miko is one of Rin’s descendents.”

That made Kagome’s eyes nearly pop out of her head. “She what now?”

“Sesshomaru’s livid,” Inuyasha said, “But when isn’t he…”

“So what does this Senso guy want?”

“Permanent war,” he said, solemn. “Violent human death until everyone is dead.”

Violent human death. Kagome never understood why some demons were the way that they were. How could anything living harbor such feelings of hate, especially towards others that had done nothing more than breath the same air? Though, if she were being honest with herself, some humans were the same way.

“So I take it he knows about bombs?”

“Bombs? Plural?”

“Yes. Nagasaki’s next,” she said, head down. “That’s what ends it. At least, for a while.”

Inuyasha sighed. He sounded so, so tired. “It explains some of his recent behavior. We intercepted a couple of messages to American engineers and physicists. At first we thought maybe he was a spy, or traitor, or feeding them false information,” he said, “but maybe he was just giving them the key to building the damn things.”

She didn’t know. She supposed it could be plausible. She wasn’t familiar with the development of nuclear bombs; it seemed kind of similar to miasma, or dark magic. Powerful, certainly, but at too great a cost.

They stood in silence for a moment, Inuyasha staring at the photograph, Kagome staring at Inuyasha. She wanted to smooth out the worried wrinkles on his forehead with her fingers, relax the tension in his jaw with her lips. He turned to her and took in her face, as if to commit it to memory all over again.

“Kagome,” he breathed, and for the first time in a very long time, she thought he looked truly terrified. “Why did you come back here?”

She knew it was a rhetorical question when he stood up and pulled her over to the couch she’d been on just the night before. She tried to sit next to him, but he pulled her down onto his lap and folded his arms around her.

“Is this okay?” he murmured. His body was so tense, like he was afraid of rejection.

“Yes,” she sighed, relaxing into him. It was more than ok. Unexpected, but… more than ok. She felt him relax along with her.

“I know it’s been a long time,” he said. “And you know I’m not good with this shit.”

This shit? _Oh_. Feelings. Right. He meant feelings.

“That’s okay,” she said, turning her face and carefully trailing her fingers along his jaw. “I don’t expect you to be. I came back for you, exactly as you are, Inuyasha. There’s nothing else I want.”

She didn’t know where that confident statement had come from, but she was glad she was finally able to say how she felt. She wasn’t a teenager anymore— neither was he. Being without him had been like being haunted. Like being an outline of a person. But with him there, right beside her, in her sight, in her mind, all around her… the ghosts were gone. The lines were colored in. And she wasn’t about to let a little thing like fear of rejection get in the way again.

He looked at her, pupils dilating a bit, and she knew he understood. He placed a hand on the side of her face, his fingers in her hair, and softly placed his lips on hers…

And the front door flew open.

“I got supplies! Oh, shit,” said Shoichi, bursting through the doorway with half a dozen bags on his arms.

She felt Inuyasha’s growl build on her lips before he pulled away.

“Shoichi!”

Aomame burst out of one of the back rooms. Instantly she took it Kagome and Inuyasha’s compromising position, Shoichi’s gaping maw, and the grocery bags dropped on the floor.

“God damn it, Sho! You have the tact of a turnip!”

Kagome bit her lip, smiling and leaning into Inuyasha despite his livid expression. They’d have time. Now that she was here to save him, she would make certain of it.

Kagome could have spent forever in Inuyasha’s arms, but as soon as Shoichi arrived, a sense of urgency gripped the household. Aomame folded clothes and began packing things into bags, while Shoichi sorted through the supplies he’d brought back. Inuyasha had shifted her off of his lap, murmuring that he’d be right back, before disappearing into the back hallway. Kagome was left sitting on the couch, wondering once again what the hell was going on.

When she asked, Shoichi was the one to answer.

“Some of the local forces are moving out,” he said. “They’d been considering pouring more efforts into airstrikes on the States, but didn’t make a decision until this morning. Only problem is, that leaves Tokyo with less defenses. And I don’t know how much you saw before Inuyasha found you, but the city’s been taking beatings from air raids every other night. With the forces moving out, there’ll be less defenses to take out the enemy aircraft.”

Kagome nodded. She remembered— it had been only yesterday when she’d first stumbled away from the Higurashi shrine and onto the desolate, empty streets lined with half-destroyed houses. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

“So you’re expecting another raid tonight, then.”

“Our area has been relatively safe so far,” said Aomame. “But it was only a matter of time. We knew as soon as Inuyasha heard about the movement of defenses that it’d probably be best to at least prepare.”

“Where will you go if you have to leave?”

“The country, we think. We still have some family there. But you don’t have to worry, Kagome,” Aomame said, watching Kagome’s expression grow concerned. “We’ve got time. For them to move that many units… we’ll be well-defended until at least next week. These are just precautionary.”

She nodded, not sure what to believe. It made a little sense, bombing Tokyo after the troops moved but… wouldn’t that just kill civilians? Then again, that didn’t seem to matter to the Americans when they launched the bombs. Which was still happening. Later that week.

Sitting on the couch, drawing her knees to her chest, she began to go over the events of the war in her head. So much death, so many innocent people.What if… what if there was time to change things? Maybe time to stop it? After all, she was here, wasn’t she? And she knew what was happening and where. She doubted she could do much to stop a country across the sea from setting off bombs, but she felt like she had to do _something_.Why shouldn’t she try to save innocent victims of war AND Inuyasha at the same time? Sure, the idea sounded absurd and impossible, but they’d achieved the impossible before together, hadn’t they?

Then again, this was a World War. Naraku had been one man.

Still, she thought about the picture Inuyasha had showed her of the bright-eyed man, Senso. The man called war. She wondered if he maybe was a war god. Maybe if _he_ was stopped in time, they could stop the bombs from ever reaching Hiroshima or Nagasaki, or shoot them down over the ocean? They could save so many people. They _should_ save so many people. She and Inuyasha should hunt this man down, no matter where he was.

As long as he wasn’t in Hiroshima.

She shuddered at her own thoughts. It felt all wrong. If she could help people, she wanted to. It was the right thing to do. But she didn’t know if she’d be willing to put Inuyasha in danger to do so. What did that say about her?

“Kagome, stop thinking so much,” said Inuyasha as he returned from the back hallway. He’d grabbed two sets of clothes— one clearly his, and one set of women’s clothes, which he put into a duffle bag.

“Aomame, you got extras?” he said, gesturing to her spread of toiletries on the counter.

“Sure, why?”

“Put them in here,” he said, gesturing to the bag.

Kagome smiled and hugged her knees tighter to her chest. He was making sure she had enough to go with him.

Once they’d each packed something resembling a to-go bag and had a bite of lunch, it was time for Inuyasha to head back out. Kagome didn’t like the fact that he was leaving, but he had a job to do, and if it brought more information about Senso, the better.

“Come back to me,” she whispered as she hugged him tightly at the door. He nodded into her hair, saying nothing in words, but everything in gesture. He squeezed her once before letting her go and walking out the door without looking back.

When she turned around, she found Aomame and Shoichi staring at her.

“It is so weird to see Uncle Inuyasha that affectionate,” said Shoichi.

“Yeah,” agreed Aomame, “I think you broke him permanently.”

“Broken before I got him,” Kagome said with a grin and a shrug.

Here she was, in the middle of another century, with strangers, during a world war, terrified out of her mind and yet…

He was coming back to her. She knew it. She could rest easy. So, sitting back on the couch, the sounds of Aomame and Shoichi toiling away in the kitchen, that’s exactly what she did. With the wind rustling the curtains, brushing her cheeks, she was asleep before her head hit the cushion.

—

She was in a forest.

A deep, dark forest, where wisps of fog snaked around the trees. The ground was so black it was nearly the color of the night sky. The trees themselves arched over her head like a canopy, creating a tunnel. The forest was quiet, save for the occasional sound of a cricket or a rustling in the leaves above. She looked down and noticed that she was back in her old schoolgirl outfit—the one she’d worn all over the feudal era and had to replace who knew how many times. She looked left and right, and all she saw were woods and a dark path stretching infinitely before her and behind her. She felt something in her palm, and looking down she found that she was holding the shaft of a sharp arrow. Then she felt something in her other hand— her bow.

Slowly, out of the darkness in front of her, a man crept closer and closer. He walked at a steady pace, and by all accounts should have been invisible in the darkness of the forest, but there was a bright light shining on his person. As he got closer, Kagome observed that it was coming from one of his eyes. He approached, coming within about stone’s throw of her, and she noticed he had on a military uniform that was vaguely familiar.

“Kagome Higurashi,” he said in a deep, almost fatherly voice.

In an instant she drew up her arrow and aimed it at the man.

“How do you know my name?”

“I have known your name for centuries, Kagome,” he said. His voice echoed in the trees. “You have been a source of great inspiration to me.”

She frowned. “Inspiration?”

“Yes,” he said slowly. “You showed me the true power of a miko, the true power behind pure spiritual energy. I used to dismiss it, thinking it too weak, but it was the last piece of the puzzle I needed.”

She kept her arrow up. She did not trust this man, whoever he was.

“Kagome, I think we could do great things together. I already have one of your brethren with me— together we could change things. Make the world pure.”

“What do you mean?”

“We could purify the world, much like you did the Shikon jewel” he said, “we could find the hideaways of the filthy, rotting, bipeds without spiritual or demonic power. The ones that soil the earth with their refuse. And we could purify the earth of their essence.”

Kagome’s eyes narrowed, her aim trained directly at the man’s chest. “Whoever you are, I don’t want any part of that.”

The darkness of the forest began to feel like it was closing in, the fog lapping at her ankles and twisting itself in her hair. While she was not truly afraid, she felt a sort of nausea. A sort of unsettled, anxious feeling in her gut; the kind of feeling she got when something was not right.

“You know my name,” she said. “It’s only fair you tell me yours.”

“I am Senso,” he said. “The man they call war. And you will come to me, Kagome Higurashi. It will not be long until we see each other again.”

With that, he began to dissolve into the forest, his one bright eye the only part of him that remained. It hovered, an incorporeal spirit, flying towards her as the forest continued to envelope her. It perched itself on the tip of her arrow, directly in her eyeline.

“Give Sesshomaru my regards,” his disembodied voice boomed, before the light blinked out of existence, and her world went completely dark.

—

The ground below her shook.

She opened her eyes and looked out the kitchen window. The portion of the sky that was visible was bright orange, and for a moment she thought that the sun was setting.

But this was not the case.

Aomame and Shoichi rushed out of the back hall, Aomame still dressed in proper daytime attire. Shoichi however had, at some point, changed into striped pajamas, and his hair was ruffled as if he’d been asleep.

“It’s happening,” he said.

“Shit!” yelled Aomame as she ran back into the hallway.

Kagome blinked a few times, her eyes still a bit blurry. “What’s happening?”

“What we feared,” Aomame answered. “The bombs.”

As she answered, the room began to shake. Glasses in the kitchen cabinets clinked against each other and a mug fell off the table and shattered. Outside the kitchen window, where she thought she had seen a sunset, were the rising flames from the bombs dropped on the citizens of Tokyo. Her gaze immediately moved from the window to the front door. It was clearly night time, and so far, there was no sign of Inuyasha. Her heart sank. The bombing had started, and he was nowhere in sight. She wondered if Aomame or Shoichi knew more, but her thought process was interrupted by another blast off in the distance. Aomame burst back into the main room, carrying 3 bags, one being significantly larger than the others- their duffle.

“Kagome,” she said, “We have to move.”

“Where is Inuyasha?” she demanded.

“Doesn't matter, we have to move.”

Kagome saw red. Move without him? She didn’t think she’d ever jumped to anger this quickly after waking up from a nap. “I am _not_ going anywhere without him!”

“He said you’d say something like that,” said Shoichi.

“We don’t have time for this Kagome,” said Aomame. “He said if anything happened, we should meet him at a rendezvous point.”

A rendezvous point? Why hadn’t he mentioned that before? She didn’t feel good about this at all.

“We can’t just sit and wait, Kagome!” Aomame repeated. “Come on. We’ll meet him there.”

“Where?”

“At the train station,” she said. “Just about a kilometer down the road.”

Kagome pressed her lips together and then nodded, trying to convince herself this was a good plan. “Fine.” She held out her arm to carry the duffle bag from earlier. Aomame handed it to her and with a huff she threw it onto her shoulder. She was sure she looked quite interesting— her hair was down and likely matted from having slept on it so much without using a brush. She wore a heavy fire-proof robe, bright red, over pajamas that were too long on her. She wore Aomame’s extra pair of Mary Janes which, while thankfully her size, did have a bit of a block heel at the bottom, which was going to make running difficult. And then there was her bow and quiver, strapped to the back of her absurd attire with the duffle over her shoulders.

_I guess I’m not traveling through time unless I look absolutely ridiculous compared to everyone else…_

Still, donning the fire rat, she felt a bit of a sense of calm return. It was almost as if when it was draped upon her shoulders, so was Inuyasha’s protection.

“Ok, _now_ can we go?” Aomame said.

With that, they took off into the night. As Kagome tried to keep pace with the long-legged Aomame and Shoichi, she noticed the smoke beginning to rise in the air. A raid siren had started to go off somewhere, and in the distance she heard what sounded like scattered screams. Her heart squeezed.

“What about everyone else?”

“What do you mean what about everyone else?” shouted Aomame over her shoulder. “We don’t have time!”

But Kagome couldn’t help but feel like they had to _make_ time. She knew they were meeting Inuyasha, and that Aomame knew the way, but she also couldn’t shake the feeling that she was leaving these people to die. There was no way to stop the bombing, but she was wearing the robe of the firerat. Perhaps she could do something, save at least one person on her way out of the city. Given the horrors that she knew were about to come, it was the least she felt she should do.

Then she heard screams from the second story building just up ahead; it had begun to catch fire in the back and so far, no one was exiting the building. They sounded young, maybe only children. Her heart squeezed. She couldn’t go after them; she’d be risking her own life again, putting Inuyasha through all sorts of worry. It was stupid to even consider; who did she think she was, running into a burning building by herself? But they were children, and they didn’t know what was coming. No one in Tokyo did. That knowledge alone felt like it was enough to smother her.

She frowned, determined. She knew what she had to do.

_He’s going to kill me if he finds out._

“Hey, Shoichi!” she yelled, as he was the closest to her. “Take this to the rendezvous, I’m gonna try to help those people in the grey building.”

“What?!” he yelled back, barely managing to catch the duffle, bow, and quiver she threw at him as she ran towards the house. “Kagome, you can’t! It’ll kill you!”

His voice faded as she got closer to the building. The sound of fire was roaring, but it was still only in the back of the building. If she was fast…

“Wait, Kagome, come back! We’re almost there!”

But she could barely hear them now. She wrenched the front door open, and entered what appeared to be a family sitting room. A radio sat in the corner chirping away, as if nothing were happening. Smoke billowed down from the stairwell and hovered on the ground like the fog from her dream, in whisps and curls that threatened to drown her. She heard someone shout from upstairs, so she inhaled as much good air as she could and raced up the stairway. She stopped at the landing, seeing a narrow hallway with four doors, but the back two were barely visible through the smoke. Kagome coughed as she exhaled. It was much hotter up here than it had been downstairs. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea.

It was then that she heard someone cry, and it was from one of those back doors.

“Hello! Is someone in there?” shouted Kagome, praying that she was wrong, that she could just turn around and run back to safety.

“Yes!” answered the panicked voice of a child. “Me and my little brother! We’re trapped; the door handle is too hot and smoke is coming from under the door.”

“Where are your parents?”

“They work late every night for the war! We haven’t seen them.” The child shouted. Then another child, someone younger, started to cry. Kagome cursed. She didn’t know how to open the door without burning herself; she just had Inuyasha’s firerat to protect her from fire.

Maybe, if she could brave the smoke, she could grip the handle through the robe, and escort them under the safety of the robe as they left.

Determined, she walked purposefully toward the door, holding up one arm to try and shield herself from the smoke. It was getting thicker and thicker, and she knew she had to be careful, as smoke could be very disorienting once it was dense enough. The heat of the air, too, was getting to be unbearable; sweat pooled at her brow and began to drop down her chin faster than she would have guessed possible. The weight of the fire rat, while protective, did not help the overwhelming sensation of heat. When she got to the door, she maneuvered both of her hands so that they were wrapped in the fire rat but still gripping the handle. The kids had been right; she could feel the heat of the handle through the robe. She wrenched open the door.

Two small children started at her, completely terrified, ashes smeared on their faces. The older child was a girl, the younger, a boy. They reminded her of herself and Souta.

“Come on!” Kagome said, waving the kids forward. At first they were hesitant, but when the older child made up her mind, she dragged her brother along with her confidently. The three of them huddled under the robe as they made their way back down the hallway, flames now catching on the walls.

Kagome panicked. She knew the stairs would be next.

“Run, kids!” she shouted as she gave them a little push towards the stairs. They were light, and would probably still be able to make it, even if the stairs weren’t completely structurally sound. Through the ever-oppressive smoke, she watched them nearly fly down the stairs to safety. She tried to follow, but she was not as fast as them, and she was wearing the heavy robe, with the ridiculous shoes that definitely weren’t made for this kind of thing.

 _Damn,_ she thought. _Inuyasha’s going to kill me._

As she heard the infrastructure of the building creak around her, the heat rising even higher, she thought of what, if anything, she could do. So she got down to the floor, covered herself with the robe, and prayed it would be enough.


	5. five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your continued sweet comments. They seriously make my day. I'll likely be posting these more at night now given some work changes, but I will hopefully be able to stay on schedule. And apologies for any errors— I tried to catch most of them!

She heard him first.

_“Kagome!”_ he shouted, and she could barely hear the building continue to break down. The smoke was so heavy that even on the ground, she could not see.

“Inuyasha! I’m up here!” she shouted, praying that he could hear her over the roar of the fire. She wanted him to find her, but she was afraid of what he might have to face to do so. He wasn’t fireproof. She peeked out from under the firerat, hot smoke blowing in her face, and saw two military boots land deftly on the second floor. Then she felt herself wrapped up and lifted off the ground as if she weighed nothing.

She tried to sigh in relief, but only coughed.

Kagome could tell when they were finally outside of the building because the temperature changed dramatically. Bundled as she was, at firsrt she couldn’t see much but Inuyasha’s strong jawline through the smoke. Then her vision cleared. His face, covered in ash, was absolutely furious. He held her tighter to him than she had ever remembered before, and as soon as they were away from the roar of the fire, she could have sworn that she heard a low growl emanating from his chest.

It was only a few seconds moving at “Inuyasha speed” before she felt his grip loosen. Gently, he set her on her feet, still holding the majority of her weight while the firerat covered her head. He lifted it from her face and she hated what she saw.

Inuyasha was completely terrified. Brows furrowed, eyes almost tinged red with anger. The sides of his cheeks had a faint touch of purple underneath his cheekbones. His eyes searching her face for any sign of injury, any deformation, then the rest of her body. As he did so he readjusted the fire rat to sit on her shoulders, but he left his hands on her shoulders as well, and she could feel the tips of his claws pressing through the fabric.

“Kagome,” he said, his voice like gravel, “We’re gonna have a talk, aren’t we?”

She nodded, though out of agreement or fear, she wasn’t sure. He sounded almost like he was on the verge of losing control completely, on the verge of becoming a demon. He stared at her frightened face, then the red drained from his eyes and his cheeks returned to skin tone. As he returned to normal, Shoichi and Aomame rushed over to them.

“What the hell were you thinking?” shouted Aomame, clearly concerned as well. “Bombs are going off and you rush into a burning building?”

“Actually, I thought it was pretty brave,” said Shoichi.

“Shut up, Sho,” said Aomame, who suddenly dropped her bag and pulled Kagome into a huge hug.

“Kagome, it was brave, but stupid. So, so stupid.” She let go and stepped back to take Kagome’s full state in. “Did you pull this kind of shit in the Feudal era?

“Not really.”

“All the fucking time.”

They answered at the same time, then looked at each other. Kagome eyed the ground, embarrassed. Whether or not she’d admit it to herself, Inuyasha was right.

“Look, they were kids, ok! Their parents weren’t there! I couldn’t just do nothing.”

“No, you could have continued to run to the station with us, so we could meet up with uncle, and get the hell out of Tokyo!” Aomame shouted, then pinched the bridge of her nose. In that moment she resembled no one so much as Miroku, who she remembered doing the same thing all of the time back in the Feudal era.

“I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to worry you guys, it just sort of… happened.” Kagome said. A question nagged at her, though. “How did Inuyasha know where to find me? And so soon?”

“We’re really close to the station, actually, so we just yelled for him,” said Shoichi, shrugging.

“And he’s pretty fast. So, can we head to the train now?"

Inuyasha had gone quiet, but at some point, he had taken her hand, and she’d barely noticed. It had been as easy and normal as breathing that her brain hadn’t even registered it.

“No,” Inuyasha said, his voice returning to normal. He let go of Kagome’s hand only to grab their bag and her archery supplies from Shoichi’s burdened shoulders. The man sagged in relief at losing the extra weight. “You guys are going to the train. Kagome and I are going somewhere else.”

Aomame frowned. “Are you sure? I mean, where will you go?”

“We’ll manage,” he said. “You two head out to the country and stay with Masao and Haruka.”

Aomame and Shoichi nodded. “We’ll give them your best.”

Inuyasha then held out the backpack to Kagome. “If I’m gonna carry you, you’ll have to carry this.” She nodded, and put first the backpack, then the quiver and bow on her back.

Aomame sighed and looked out at the city. Fires dotted the landscape, but it seemed the bombing had died down. “Who knows when we’ll be back here.”

“We’ll meet again,” said Inuyasha, crouching down in a very familiar pose so that Kagome could climb on his back. “Take care of yourselves.”

Aomame nodded and Shoichi looked like he was about to tear up. He gave a small smile. “You, too, uncle.”

“Take care of him Kagome,” Aomame said. “He needs you just as much as you need him.”

Climbing onto Inuyasha’s back, she waited for his retort; something like “yeah right”, but it never came. Instead her gripped her thighs and prepared to leap into the forest next to the station.

“I will, Aomame. Thanks for everything, you too.”

And before another sentence could be uttered, Inuyasha lifted them both into the air. She wanted to look back at her new friends, maybe even wave goodbye, but she found that all she could do was press her face into his back. It was just the two of them, again. Though she had a feeling there’d be a lot of hell to pay before they got back on happy ground.

She was moments from sleep before they landed.

She’d forgotten how comfortable she was on his back. She’d always felt safe with him, but there was something about him carrying her that made her feel so protected, even cherished. Since they left the Feudal era, it seemed that his back had widened a small bit, his musculature more like that of a man than a teenager. And she was not complaining. At. All. She had been imagining what it would feel like to sink her fingers into that taut skin… but then she remembered that this was an unlikely scenario in the near future, particularly given how mad she had made him.

The worst part was, she understood why he was so upset. What had she been thinking, running into a burning building? She wanted to do something, anything, to help this hopeless situation, to help the people affected by this war. Inuyasha made her feel strong enough to help. But… she probably should have waited for him to be with her before she ran into a house on fire.

They landed in a small clearing in the woods far from the city. It was nighttime, so Inuyasha’d felt more comfortable traveling fast, without too much fear of being seen, or worse, being shot at. He’d finally decided they were far away enough from the city, Kagome guessed. She couldn’t say for sure.

He hadn’t spoken to her since they left the ground.

She dismounted his back and took the backpack, bow and quiver off of her shoulders and set them by the roots of a nearby tree as Inuyasha checked out the area. She watched as his keen eyes scanned the treetops, then the trees themselves, then the forest floor. He then turned to face her, his expression now unreadable, his features carefully blank.

He was in that same military uniform, she noticed, only with his jacket still on. She frankly hadn’t given much thought to the material when she was on his back, but now, she looked at him and all she could think was of how uncomfortable he must be. She cleared her throat.

“So… isn’t that jacket kind of itchy?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “What?”

“Kind of itchy fabric, you know. It can’t be comfortable, you should take the firerat back, that would be much more comfortable—”

As she spoke, she started to take the firerat off of her shoulders. He was in front of her in an instant.

“Don’t take it off,” he ordered. She nodded slowly.

She was not afraid of him, and she truly never had been, but the way he was looking at her… those discerning eyes that always said more than his words made her so nervous. He licked his lips.

“Kagome,” he started, but she couldn’t let him continue. She felt like he was reading her soul. It was too much.

“I’m so sorry, Inuyasha,” she whispered. “I truly didn’t mean to worry you. I wasn’t thinking; I guess that was the problem. It’s just, it’s so hard being here in this time and not helping. Knowing what I know. And with you I always feel so invincible, like nothing can touch me. And I know, I know you weren’t there technically, but even knowing you were nearby made me feel stronger. _You_ make me stronger,” she said. She place a tentative ash-covered hand on his arm. “And I’m sorry if it made me reckless and I worried you.”

He continued to stare, eyes intense. He’d never been this quiet before, had he? Usually he was toe to toe arguing with her.

She started to open her mouth to fill the silent void, when he grabbed her arms and kissed her. Hard. Inuyasha slanted his lips over her and moved, pushing her back into the tree behind her. They had never kissed like this in real life; only in her dreams, and this was _far_ better than her dreams. No figment of the mind coud have rendered such soft lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he took her flushed face in his hands, lips moving against hers like he was struggling for air, and it was all in her mouth. She kissed him back with as much fervor as she could muster, one of her legs wrapping around his. He pushed his tongue through her teeth and into her mouth, and she whimpered. His mouth tasted the way his breath always smelled to her. Her own version of heaven. Her own version of home.

His fingers laced into her hair and tilted her head up, practically licking her skin and he kissed his way down her jaw and onto her neck. She, too, moved her hands into his hair and encouraged him vocally, sighing as she felt his teeth rake her neck.

“Inuyasha,” she said shakily as he sucked on a spot just behind her left ear. “Does this mean you’re not angry anymore?”

To her displeasure, he pulled back, a smirk on his face.

“No,” he said, his voice also a bit unsteady, “but I get it. This war is terrible, and you help people, Kagome. It’s who you are. Just wish you’d stop being so stupid about it.” He leaned into her again, his forehead on hers, noses practically touching. “I can’t lose you again. Even though you’ll still be born years from now. I just got you back. I’m not letting you go for any reason. Ever. Even if you chose the dumbest time in history to come back to me,” he said, and she felt her face flush even more.

“I’m sorry,” she breathed, pressing her lips to his for a moment. “I don’t wanna let you go either. That’s why I’m here, and that’s why I’m staying.”

“Good. Now you wanna sleep? Or you wanna fool around some more?”

“Inuyasha!” she exclaimed in excitement more than in protest.

“Don’t hafta go too far,” he said, returning to his ministrations on her neck. “Not safe out here. Can’t get comfortable, either.”

“Mmm. Will you at least sleep next to me?”

“Keh,” he responded, kissing his way back up her jaw, placing one last peck on her nose. “I’d like to see someone try to stop me.”

For the first time in a long time, she gave a full, genuine smile. A smile that felt familiar, last worn so many years ago, when they were still searching for the nefarious Naraku and the Shikon jewel.

Dreams of saving the world could wait for one night. For now, she just wanted to live in the feeling of his arms around her while she slept.

—

The morning air was cold.

After “fooling around” a bit more, as Inuyasha put it, they’d set up by the roots of the tree to sleep. Inuyasha had packed a blanket in the backpack the day before, and while it was not too large, it was warm, and if the huddled together, it was enough to pad the ground. The disadvantage was that they had no blanket to put on top of them, but under the military jacket and the firerat robe, not to mention nestled against Inuyasha’s chest, she found she was plenty warm. That was, until the morning, when the temperature had plummeted, and even with the extra body heat, her feet began to chill. She tried to pull her knees up a bit, but found that if she did, she would be pushing herself away from Inuyasha and simultaneously edging herself out from under their makeshift blankets. She attempted to look up at him, but his embrace made it difficult to do so without disturbing him. His breathing was so peaceful, so steady, each in and out making her heart swell. But her feet were really, _really_ getting cold.

So she experimented with tucking just one leg up. Instead of pulling the knee to her chest, she wrapped it over both of Inuyasha’s legs, much like she had the night before. There. At least one foot had a shot at warmth. The other poked precariously out from under the firerat. She frowned, pulling herself closer to him, twisting her cold-footed leg almost in between his feet.

“Kagome.”

She nearly jumped. Pulling back a bit and looking up, Inuyasha had one eye open, trained solely on her.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I… my feet were cold.”

“Yeah no shit. I can feel them.” He pulled both her legs towards him hard and she squeaked. The leg closest to the ground ended up going between his legs, and she found herself pressed flush against him.   
“You warm now?” he said, almost rumbling. His ear twitched when she didn’t respond.

She wanted to respond, but being this close, feeling his warmth, all over and in a certain hardened area in his groin, she was afraid to speak.

“Yes,” she said, a bit sheepish. She may have been an adult, familiar with sex and everything that went with it, but being around him made her feel like a teenager again. It was that butterfly feeling that made her feel like her heart was going to gallop out of her chest.

“Good,” he said, pressing his nose into her hair. “Now go back to sleep.”

But she was suddenly _so awake_. And even though he was trying to get back to sleep he was still so hard next to her. Her leg between his, she was practically straddling him. Her breath hitched, and she felt him sigh.

“If you don’t stop smelling so excited, I’m gonna have to take us someplace more comfortable, and that would require us leaving the warmth.”

“ _I’m_ excited?” she said, rolling her hips against his just a bit. He took in a quick breath through clenched teeth.

“Dammit, woman!”

“Well then don’t complain that I’m excited!”

“Hell, Kagome!”

In a moment she was flat on her back, hair splayed out beneath her. He was hovering over her, hands placed by both of her shoulders, a dangerous expression on his face. His eyes danced in the early morning light. One of his fangs had caught his lower lip as he smiled— if he did that for much longer, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do. Her body may have suddenly been exposed to the cold, but her lower abdomen felt dense and warm. Even though she was still wearing Aomame’s pajamas, she felt completely naked underneath him.

“What are you going to do to me,” she asked, her voice soft, “now that you’ve got me like this, I-nu-ya-sha?”

He held strong until she said his name at the very end, soft and slow, and then his resolve broke. He was all over her, his legs straddling her now, his lips sealing over her mouth, his clawed hand gently tracing a line up her abdomen and to her chest. Her tongue finally got to touch those pointed teeth, and when it did, she couldn’t help but squeak at how damn cute she thought it was. This, of course, egged him on. He lifted his head up, about to go after her neck again, his thumb gliding alone the bottom of her bra when—

“Hey, mutt! The fuck are you doing?”

They both froze in place. She knew that voice. She couldn’t, didn’t want to believe it, but she knew who it was that had just caught them in the middle of… whatever they were about to do. And her eyes instantly flew to Inuyasha, who had closed his eyes, his face carrying the expression of a murderous man.

“Wait a sec,” the voice got closer. “Do I smell— _Kagome?!!_ ”

She had to pry Inuyasha off of her to answer— he had been pretty determined to stay exactly where he was, between her and the world— before sitting up, tugging down her shirt, and eyeing their visitor.

She laughed nervously. “Kouga?!”

“Fan-fucking-tastic,” muttered Inuyasha from the ground.

It was going to be an interesting morning.

Once they’d straightened themselves out, with Inuyasha pointedly wrapping her in the firerat robe, the two of them sat across from Kouga on the blanket. Inuyasha had tried to pull her on his lap, and as much as she liked the idea, she knew it was to get some sort of reaction out of Kouga, so she resisted and sat right next to him instead. She took his hand as a consolation; he seemed pretty put-out.

“So, what brings you here, Kouga?”

“Me?” he asked, bright blue eyes wide. Much like Inuyasha, he, too had cut his hair short. He was dressed in a slightly different manner than Inuyasha— he had on a white military suit with gold buttons and a sword on his hip. He appeared to be some kind of officer. “Shouldn’t I be askin’ you that? Not that I’m unhappy to see you, quite the opposite.” He gave her a wide smile and she felt Inuyasha’s hand grip hers tightly. She wasn’t looking at him, but she could guess the look on his face.

“Well, it’s kind of a long story…”

“Doesn’t matter, tell us what you want wolf boy, and then get back to your _wife_.”

Kagome’s eyes widened. “You got married? To who?”

Kouga closed his eyes and smirked. “Yeah, Ayame and I got married not too long after Naraku was destroyed. Had a couple of kids, helped rebuild the wolf tribe.”

“Kouga, that’s wonderful” Kagome said, wanting to lean over and give Kouga a hug, but Inuyasha kept a firm pressure on her hand. He was still so anxious. It really didn’t make sense to her— after all, she came back in time for him. Again. Certainly he didn’t think she’d go run off with Kouga.

“Missed you, though, Kagome. Ginta and Hakaku still talk about you. And this one,” he said pointing at Inuyasha, who responded with a frown, “was fucking _insufferable_ after you left. I mean, he usually is, but even more so without your magic sit thing.”

“You gonna get to the point, asshole?”

“See what I mean!” said Kouga, fully grinning now. “Well, I can’t say I expected to see you Kagome, and I have no idea how the hell you got here, but I’m glad you are. Maybe it’ll knock some sense into our pup over here.”

She heard a low warning growl well up in Inuyasha’s chest.

“What do you mean, knock sense into him?”

“That’s enough, Kouga!” said Inuyasha, standing up. Kagome had seen him madder, but he was still pretty pissed off. That and he had a strange look of fear in his eyes. It was almost as if he didn’t want Kouga to say something in particular in front of her. “Did you come here to run your mouth or did you have an actual point to your visit?”

Kouga rolled his eyes. “Look, man, just trying to chit chat with a long-lost friend. You got a problem with that, then it’s _your_ problem.” He sighed, then stood up as well. “But if you’re in such a hurry to cut to the chase, here it is: I have a lead on Senso.”

_I am Senso. The man they call war._

The dream, barely one day removed from her present, came flooding back into her mind. Images of the dark forest, the dense fog, and the bright eye. How had she almost forgotten it?

Oh, right. Bombs and fire.

So much had happened in the past few days things were starting to blur together. She had expected 1945 to be a difficult time to have been dropped into, what with the war going on, but she’d never known about this _other_ war. This war between demons, which she admittedly knew very little about, but it felt like there was no time. She’d already been in the past for a day and a half. That left five and a half days. Five and a half days before an entire city was destroyed, blasted, disintegrated into oblivion, with the repercussions and radiation lingering for generations.

Five days until Inuyasha would die fighting it.

She banished the image from her brain before it could manifest. Now was not the time.

She watched Inuyasha wrestle with the information himself. His brows furrowed and his posture relaxed.

“You find him?”

“No, but we found a guy who knows how to find him,” Kouga said. “We’ve been watching him, but so far, he hasn’t talked. He’s been a bit of a problem, even for some of our more skilled allies.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“He’s a demon, and he’s a dream eater,” said Kouga. “Every time we get close to him, he demands someone’s dreams in exchage for info. Says he’s looking for a pure one. If they’re pure, then he’ll give them the information. If they aren’t, well…”

“Who in the hell has pure dreams?” asked Inuyasha.

“Well, we were hoping you might be able to contact some of your human friends to see if they fit the bill, but honestly…” he gave a sympathetic look to Kagome. “The best option may have just fallen in our lap.”

Kagome blinked. Oh. _Oh._

Both of the men stared at her.

“No. No. Kagome isn’t a part of this.”

She sighed. “Inuyasha, if you’re a part of it, then _I’m_ a part of it.”

“How the hell do you figure that?” he challenged.

“Because I’m not leaving your side, idiot!” she said, finally straightening up to meet his eye. “If this Senso guy is really as dangerous as you said he was, and Kouga knows a guy who knows where to find him, then we have to stop him.”

Inuyasha growled in frustration. “Just— just let me find somewhere safe for you to stay and I’ll go look into it!”

“What happened to not letting me go ‘for any reason’?”

“Argh!” She could tell he did NOT like it when she turned his own words against him. “I’m not letting you go, I’m keeping you safe, which is a different thing!”

“Anyone want to know what I think?” offered Kouga.

“No!”

“NO!”

“Sheesh…”

“Where is this guy, anyway?” Inuyasha asked, still glaring at her.

“Kure. Near the coast.”

Kure. Kagome searched her brain, trying to remember her geography. Kure was a coastal city. About 25 km from…

“Nevermind,” said Kagome. “We can’t go.”

Inuyasha did a double take. “What?! Just a second ago you said—”

“Well I can go, but you can’t. Maybe I could just pop over there with Kouga and—”

“ _Kagome_ ,” Inuyasha said dangerously. His voice had dropped about an octave, as if commanding her. “ _No._ ”

She crossed her arms. Both of them, hell, all three of them were more than capable of digging their heels in. She knew Inuyasha wasn’t trying to be controlling, but when it came to the safety of the people he cared for, his friends and family, she knew he would go to just about any lengths to protect them.

Too bad. So would she.

“Inuyasha, that’s about twenty five kilometers away from Hiroshima,” she said.

After a few seconds of thought, his posture slackened in understanding. “Oh.”

Kouga frowned. “I don’t get it. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Kouga, I need you to listen to me very carefully,” said Kagome. “Whatever you do, keep yourself and your tribe far from Hiroshima for the foreseeable future. And Nagasaki, while you’re at it.”

“Kagome, I don’t understand…”

“You know how I’m from the future?”

“Well, yeah, you always said you were, but—”

“Then trust me,” Kagome said. “Anything you care about. Keep it away from there.”

Kouga stared at her intensely, as if she were a puzzle to solve. His blue eyes met hers, and it seemed to be in understanding.

“You were always so different from the girls I knew, Kagome. From anyone I knew,” he said. “And now you’re here, hundreds of years later. Let me guess, it’s for this guy?” He thumbed over to Inuyasha, who was still looking deflated. “Well I don’t know, maybe he’s done enough to deserve you, maybe not. What I do know is that you are the most compassionate human, demon, whatever that I’ve ever met. Thanks to you, I was able to let Ayame into my life. I was able to unite our tribes and rebuild what Naraku destroyed— so I’ll take your warning, ‘cause I know you’re saying it to help. But no matter what’s happening in Hiroshima, it’ll mean jack shit unless we take out this Senso guy. He wants all humans gone. If whatever happens in Hiroshima is less damaging than that, than all humans dead, you have to risk it. You have to stop him. I don’t wanna put you in harm’s way, believe me, I don’t. But if this guy wins,” Kouga took a breath and looked at the ground. “Kagome, if he wins, it’s not just the humans that are gonna suffer. Everything is gonna suffer. I promise you that.”

He shifted his gaze to Inuyasha. “Now I’m gonna give your girl a hug, because she’s my _friend_.”

“Keh, whatever.”

That was about as close to ‘permission’ as she was going to get. She hugged Kouga tight, his military uniform smelling like, well, wild dog. She smiled. As she was about to let go, he squeezed her gently, murmuring in her ear. “Seriously, keep your eye on Inuyasha. He’s been reckless.”

Reckless? Wasn’t he always reckless?

But something in Kouga’s tone made her very, very concerned. As if Inuyasha had been more than reckless. As if he’d been downright foolish.

Whatever it was, Kagome had already resolved to save Inuyasha from the bomb at Hiroshima. If she had to save him from himself too, well, then that’s what she’d have to do.

Kouga leaned back and Inuyasha resumed glaring, presumably having heard what Kouga whispered. The wolf shrugged. “Mutt, you ain’t getting one too.”

“Thank fuck for that.”

Kagome stepped back towards Inuyasha and took his hand. He held her hand tightly, almost painfully, as they waved goodbye to their old friend.

“Oh, and Inuyasha,” Kouga yelled over his shoulder as he turned to run. “I hear anything about breaking this girl’s heart, you’re gonna have to face one pissed off wolf tribe, hear me?”

“Fuck off.”

“Yeah, I’ll miss you too, buddy.”

And with that, Kouga sped off into the distance. Kagome glanced at Inuyasha. He was still gripping her hand like she’d slip out of his.


	6. six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You're all dreamboats and I'm sorry I don't have the time to respond to comments like I should. Hopefully the speedy updates make it worth it. :)
> 
> We meet another OC, which is a little strange this far into the story, I know, but I promise, she's important!

**SIX**

“Where exactly are we?”

“Right now?” said Inuyasha, shrugging as he shoved his jacket into their shared bag, making it particularly bulky. “Just kind of ran last night. Should have paid more attention but I was thinking about… other things. Wolf must’ve tracked my smell.”

Wherever they were, it smelled lovely. As the sun began to warm the earth, she was able to truly take in the forest in the light of day. It was almost like being in the Feudal Era, except there was something light and floral on the breeze that had ushered itself in as Kouga had left. Light was speckled onto the ground as it passed through the leaves. If she closed her eyes she could fully feel the sun on her face, she was sure, but she wouldn’t close her eyes. Some part of her was still afraid that, if she closed her eyes, he’d disappear and she’d be back at the bottom of the well, her nails broken and bloody from trying to dig. Again. She had to think about something else.

“Is Kouga right, Inuyasha?” she asked. The wolf demon’s warning had been powerful; he wasn’t one to say something like that if it wasn’t true. “Is Senso aiming to destroy everything?”

Inuyasha shook his head. “From what I’ve heard, it’s humans he’s after. But Kouga’s not… wrong,” he said as if it pained him to admit Kouga could, in any way, be right. “If he takes out all human life, it’s not gonna be good news for anyone. Demons live off of humans and what they produce. I mean, most of them don’t eat people, but their products and livestock.”

“Like destroying the bottom of the food chain.”

“Food chain?” Inuyasha asked, his ears perked as if he definitely needed to know if there was a chain of food somewhere.

Kagome laughed. “Don’t worry about it. Science stuff.” She fidgeted, almost uncomfortable in the red robe now that the sun had started to climb in the sky. Something had been nagging her ever since the wolf demon left.

“Inuyasha, why are you still so upset with Kouga?”

He frowned, sincerely confused. “What? What do you mean?”

“I mean you talked to him like… like the old days. Did something else happen, or…?”

“No, he’s just a pain in my ass is all.”

“… because you know I’m here for _you_. And sounds like he’s happily married. He’s not trying to take me away anymore. He has a full life now, from the sound of it.”

Inuyasha didn’t respond. A shadow of something, maybe sadness, swept over his features as he swung the bag over his shoulder.

“It’s fine. We’re fine. I’m just…”

“Just what?”

“Tired.”

“Tired? We got lots of sleep.”

“Kagome—”

“Inuyasha—”

“He got his life back, okay!” he said, angrily clenching his fists. “He got his life back when we defeated Naraku, and what the fuck did I get?”

Kagome frowned. What was he talking about? Defeating Naraku was all he’d ever cared about.

“But you had a great life ahead of you! You had Sango and Miroku and their family and…” _and me, waiting for you_ is what she wanted to say, but she couldn’t.

“Yeah,” he said sarcastically. “I had them for another fifty years. Then they died and there were their kids. By the time their grandkids grew up, they were barely remembered. And you weren’t remembered at all. I didn’t even fucking know what had happened to you on the other side of the well. For all I knew, you’d gone off and found that Hobo guy and married him.” His tone grew more bitter with every word. It was as if seeing Kouga again brought up all of his old insecurities, leaking through his more mature exterior. “And the worst part was, I couldn’t have even blamed you. Because who would wait for someone they didn’t know would come?”

Her face twisted in something like hurt. “You really thought I’d just move on that easily. Do you have so little faith in me, Inuyasha?”

He shook his head. “Not you. People. The more time went on, the more they forgot. Until I was the only one that remembered.” his eyes were drawn downward, as if caught in a memory. “I tried to forget once. But it felt wrong. I couldn’t go through with it.”

“What did you do?”

He really couldn’t look at her now. His gaze was determinedly glued to the forest floor, his ears were plastered to his head, the light breeze playing with wisps of his hair. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Kagome pursed her lips. “Is this another Kikyo situation? Because I really don’t think—”

“Shit— _no_ Kagome.” Well that got his attention. His ears perked up and he was looking at her, golden eyes aglow in the sunlight. “No, it wasn’t that.”

“Is this what Kouga was talking about then?”

He sighed in defeat. “Wolf needs to learn to keep his mouth shut. Look. I tried to forget but I couldn’t. I tried forget all about the past; I tried to distract myself. Fought in anything and everything. Skirmishes, battles, wars. Nothing worked. I even tried magic. Some witch in the mountains promised…but I didn’t go through with it. I didn’t want to forget you.”

He wouldn’t look at her. So this was what Kouga had been referring to. He’d been so desperate, so alone that he just wanted to forget. He sublimated his feelings with fighting, he’d fought off the loneliness with each swing of a sword. What he couldn’t have known is how much she could relate. How much she tried to forget him, how hard she tried to move on. But in the end she only hurt other people, self-sabotaging herself one date at a time. It wasn’t fair to them, to herself, to anyone. So she’d given up, become hollow, wishing he would come back and fill her in with life and color again.

“Inuyasha,” she said, stroking the side of his face. He leaned into her hand and nearly closed his eyes. “It’s okay. I understand. I wanted to forget, too. I tried so hard to move on because being without you was too…”

It was too painful, too impossible, too _everything_ , but she couldn’t say that. She wanted to express to him her pain so that he felt better, not worse. “But I couldn’t forget you. I love you.” His eyes widened at her easy admission. She’d just said she loved him. It had just flown out of her mouth like a bird from a cage. She hoped it would make her next words slide by a bit easier. “You have to understand that when I dated Hojo—”

“You _what_?!”

“Listen to me Inuyasha! When I dated Hojo it wasn’t because I wanted to be _with_ him! I was trying to numb the feeling of being _without_ you. I tried so hard to move on, and I think, from everything else, I could have. The jewel, never seeing Sango and Miroku and Shippo again, I could move on from. But you? Never. It’s why it didn’t work out with Hojo. I never even slept with him, we barely kissed. And you know what? In the end, he never really saw me as more than a friend.”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s true! He was so kind, always, but we knew things weren’t working out. We cut things off and later he found someone else who really made him happy.”

“He dumped you.”

“We dumped each other. You _can’t_ be upset about that.”

“I’m not. At all.”

She hadn’t realized how worked up she was getting until she felt a tear streaming down her face once again. She took the palm of her hand and smeared it as it trickled down her cheek.“Damn it!” she yelled. “Why is it that I’ve cried more in the past two days than I have in years?!”

She heard him exhale as she attempted, in vain, to wipe away the proof of crying from her eyes. Before she could put her arms down, she felt two tense arms encircle her and pull her in. His chest was strong, unyielding and his grip on her was tight.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “Fuck, Kagome, I never say the right thing. Just know that I’m glad I didn’t forget. Sometimes it was all that kept me going.”

“No, Inuyasha. Don’t tell me that.”

“Why not? It’s true.”

“Because I’d like to believe that you were happy. That you enjoyed the life you had.”

He leaned back and gave her a skeptical look. “Did you enjoy yours?”

“I’m not talking about me.”

“Well I am.”

She growled, frustrated. “We’re arguing in circles! What I mean to say is, I love you, you jerk! And I’ve always loved you, and I guess that means that even if I’m not in your life, I just want you happy.”

She wanted to say more, to do something more, but her voice was caught in her throat.She looked up at him, and even though they were arguing and crying and everything seemed to be just as it was in the past, she noticed the creases near his eyes. The tiny, telltale signs of maturity, of worn skin, of tired expression. They were subtle, and so small, but they were there. Somewhere along the line, he had changed from a boy to a man. She had changed, too, from a girl to a woman. And though those light, effervescent feelings of love still bubbled in her stomach, there was something much deeper now. Depths that had not been dug when she was a young teen, the kind that could only be formed by loss and longing. He leaned down, pressing his lips to her forehead. It was in stark contrast to the heat she’d felt with him before. This was not a fire. This was a bond, ironclad. He said it in everything but words.

Then, he said it in words.

“I love you, too, Kagome,” he whispered against her forehead, entwining his hands with hers. “But just so you know, if you want me to be happy? Stay with me, and stay safe, just like this.” He pressed a kiss on her nose and she wrinkled it. “I’m happy.” Then he kissed her lips quick and pulled back. “And I’m not going back to the way things were before. So now that I’m good and happy, let’s get the hell out of here, find this demon, and kick his ass so we can make up for lost time.”

Slowly but surely, he had pulled a grin out of her. They were words she’d always dreamed of hearing, and she wanted to let them linger. But he was right. They had a job to do. And if they didn’t, they’d lose more than a war. They’d lose each other.

“Well then. Let’s go.”

—

They were very, very lost.

They’d left sometime around noon, from what Kagome could tell. They’d shared a few rations Inuyasha had packed before they left Tokyo— some crackers, nuts, dried fruit, jerky. Kagome had insisted that she be able to put on one of the change of clothes. It was a black calf-length skirt and sensible ¾ sleeve white button up. More Western than what Kagome had expected for the time, but then, she wasn’t really one to know fashion history. The one thing she did notice was that the material, though sturdy, was nowhere near as light and comfortable as what she was used to in the modern era.

Still, it was what she had. And it didn’t go half bad with the shoes.

“It’s awful hard to move around in,” she said, tugging at the fabric. “Inuyasha, do you have Tetsusaiga?”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, why would I not have Tetsusaiga?”

“Well I haven’t seen it.”

“It’s in the bag.”

“Tetsusaiga fit in _that_ bag?”

He nodded. The bag did not nearly look deep enough. She was about to make a comment about Mary Poppins, but she was pretty sure that would go right over his head.

“Why do you want Tetsusaiga?

She squirmed again in the fabric. “I need to cut some slits in this skirt,” she demonstrated. “Right up to here.”

Inuyasha shrugged as if it made sense, then knelt beside her.

“What are you— oh.”

With a flick of his hand, he cut straight through the fabric. Two straight lines, one on the side of each leg, going right up to mid thigh.

“Thanks,” she murmured. She tried not to think about how easily his claws had shredded the fabric. That lead to thinking of other activities that lead to shredding fabric, and, well, it wasn’t the time. She asked him to cut a long, thin piece of fabric from the fabric belt that was initially attached so she could put her hair up, and she did.

After making those adjustments and tucking in the blouse, she felt much better. More human. It was funny how wearing pajamas for a long time could make everything seem like a dream. She needed to feel real. She was desperate for this all to be real.

She caught him staring at her again, but this time when their eyes met, he looked away quickly, muttering something, blush tinting his cheeks. It sounded something like “you look nice”, but she wouldn’t make him repeat it. She knew what he meant.

Then they’d consulted a compass, and after arguing about which way Kure was, they were off.

But all of that had been hours ago. Now, they were in the middle of the forest (still), with no idea where they were.

“I know where we are.”

“No you don’t!” said Kagome, exasperated, not yet dismounting his back. He’d perched himself on a higher branch in an attempt to get a better view of the area.

“Shut up, yeah I do!”

“What is it with men and directions?” she asked to no one in particular. “Admit it, we’re lost. I know I’ve seen that rock formation over there before.”

“Kagome, I don’t _get_ lost. Wanna know why?” He looked back at her, their cheeks almost touching. He pointed to his nose. “Cause I don’t have normal human senses. I can smell where we’ve been, and I’m tellin' ya, we haven’t been here before.”

She rolled her eyes. She’d missed everything about this man, but maybe she’d missed his stubbornness a little less than his other qualities.

“Ok then, super-nose, where are we?”

He sniffed the air, which Kagome had always found very cute in the past, but somehow, she felt like he was doing it to show off.

“Aha!” he exclaimed. “I smell smoke coming from that direction.” He pointed off to the right.

“Is that the direction we’re supposed to be going?”

“Hell if I know. Something’s burning though, which means people, and people can tell us where we are.”

“Hah! So you don’t know where we are?”

“…don’t make me drop you.”

She chuckled into his back, inhaling the smell of his sweat. She could feel the muscle and sinew move as he readjusted his grip. She pressed her lips to his back and could taste it, too, the salt of exertion. She licked her lips. What this man did to her. She’d say she didn’t know what had come over her, but she knew exactly what it was. She kissed him again, this time closer to the nape of his neck.

“I mean it, Kagome,” he said, his voice lower, almost sensual. “You keep doing that and I’ll drop us both right now.”

“Promises, promises,” she said, smiling and snuggling back into her former position. “Come on. Let’s go to this town and figure out where we are.”

She should have known that where there was smoke, there was bound to be fire.

The first thing they saw was fine ash in the air. Not like in Tokyo, the ashes of burnt city and warfare. These were rural ashes from burning wood and maybe something else she couldn’t name. They fell softly, the light breeze catching them like snowflakes. Kagome noticed Inuyasha’s pace pick up the closer they got. They had just stumbled upon something that did not smell good, even to Kagome’s human senses. She could only imagine the intensity of the scent Inuyasha was picking up; his nose was wrinkled in disgust.

As they got closer, the source of the ashes became clear. In the middle of nowhere, surrounded by untouched treelines, an entire rural village had been burned to the ground. Smoke rose in wisps from piles of burnt buildings and the closer they got— she hoped she was wrong— it appeared that there were mounds of smoldering corpses, too. Clothes, torn and tainted with blood, were strewn about the black ground as if ripped directly from flesh. Plywood littered the area, a reflection of something brutal and huge that had whipped through.

Inuyasha stopped at the outskirts of the village, body tense and rigid. Kagome found it hard to breathe.

“What… what happened here?” she whispered.

Inuyasha didn’t answer. He didn’t put her down, either. He appeared to be waiting for something.

She was about to ask him why they weren’t moving, why they were just standing there, when she figured it out. He was calculating his next move, intensely surveying the area before jumping in. It was yet another reminder of how their time apart had changed him. His approach was, dare she say it, more mature. And while she loved his spirit, his reckless fire, she also loved this new maturity. He’d always be a hothead in some ways, she was sure, but his attention to details he may not have given a second thought to before spoke volumes.

She gave him a minute of focus, then tried again.

“Inuyasha. Can you tell what happened?”

“Not sure,” he said. “I need you to get down and hand me the bag. Get your arrows ready.”

She nodded and slid off his back. She then handed him the sidebag, and from its depths he drew the sword and sheath of Tetsusaiga. He gripped it firmly, an old familiar mask sliding over his features— one that was ready for battle, come what may.

She grabbed an arrow from her quiver and drew her bow, unsure of where to aim, but facing the direction of the village. Inuyasha unsheathed Tetsusaiga and the sword expanded and grew to an enormous length, giving her pangs of nostalgia that felt completely inappropriate given the circumstances. He faced the center of the city.

“Who,” he shouted in that direction, “in the hell are you?”

Kagome squinted. Who was he talking to? She traced his gaze and saw a shadowy figure emerging from the swirls of smoke. Her heart stuttered. For a second, just a split moment in time, she thought it was Kikyo. The white robes, the dark hair. But as the woman came closer, it became clear that this was not her pre-incarnate. This was someone different. Her skin was flushed and young; she couldn’t have been any older than eighteen, and her red-black hair was unruly. On the left side it was clipped up, away from her face. The right side of her face was hidden from view by ringlets and kinks of the long locks. She was indeed beautiful, but at the same time, she was a force of nature. The expression in her one visible eye was a cold, black fire. She carried no weapon, and yet, it was clear she was the most dangerous person there.

“I said who the fuck are you?!” repeated Inuyasha, brandishing his sword, showing her he was not afraid to use it.

She did not speak, but Kagome sensed an intense aura around the girl. A deep, red aura that she had never seen before. It was not good, but it was also not evil— it was both and neither. It was power, and something the girl seemed to have a significant amount of.

“Her spirit,” Kagome said, her bow and arrow lowering just slightly. “Her aura is intense, Inuyasha. I can’t tell if she’s here to hurt or help.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Well if she’s here to help, then she sure has a funny way of showing it.” He pointed the sword at the woman. “Did you kill these people?”

The woman did not smile, nor did she frown. She took two steps forward. Then two steps more. Testing the waters, seeing if either one of them was going to react. They held fast.

Then, she struck.

She moved with a fury Kagome had never seen. She had thought Kouga was fast with his jewel shards, but this woman was as quick as lightning, so fast Kagome barely saw her move before Inuyasha had been sent flying backwards away from the forest.

“Inuyasha!”

Kagome screamed, but the girl paid her no attention. She was laser-focused on her half-demon. Inuyasha lay at the base of the tree he’d landed on, a bit dazed.

_Come on, open your eyes, open your eyes!_

“Inuyasha!!”

That did it. He opened his eyes just as the woman was closing in on him. She did her same move as before— two steps forward, then another two steps, then charge. He barely dodged the blow of her first flying into the tree behind him. The wood splintered, almost severing the tree in half. It was absolutely insane. Madness. That a girl this small could produce so much damage… and destroy an entire town… it was hard to believe.

The girl followed after Inuyasha and Kagome’s human eyes could barely keep up. They were moving so fast, jumping from treetop to treetop, Inuyasha barely managing to dodge the girl’s fists. His opponent was so fast that he didn’t even have time to raise his sword; it ended up being more of a hinderance to his movement, if anything, as her nails grazed his shirt, drawing blood at his arms, his abdomen. At one point, Kagome heard him curse and saw him drop Tetsusaiga. This was not going to end well if she did not intervene.

She nocked her arrow and drew her bow, trying to get a good angle on the woman, but they were moving too damn fast. And Inuyasha was fading— fast. He was unable to keep up with the woman’s pace and at a certain point was hit with the drop of the woman’s heel onto his head, sending him through the treetops and down to the forest floor.

“ _Inuyasha!!_ ”

God, no, she couldn’t lose him.

She threw her bow onto her back and ran towards the forest, her feet carrying her as fast as they could, towards the spot where he fell. Her ankles held fast as she stumbled over branches in those godforsaken shoes and she secretly thanked her past self for torturing herself with all of those high heels in her late teens. The forest was so dense that she should have had trouble finding them, but the girl’s aura was like a red splotch on a white canvas. It would be impossible for Kagome to _not_ be able to sense it.

“Inuyasha! _Inuyashaaaa_!!”

As she closed in on the aura, she could hear him groaning. She hated that she was so familiar with his sounds of pain that she could recognize them even at a distance, even after years apart. Her feet pushed into the ground, as she ranas fast as she had ever run in her life.

No, no, no, this would not happen. She would not let it.

She almost tripped as she reached them. It happened in such a blur—

The first thing she saw was the girl holding him by the throat, up the air, something that should have been physically impossible. Then she sensed a slow drain of his energy, traveling from his extremities to his throat and being sucked into the girl’s arm. It was what she had always feared herself capable of when it came to Inuyasha— purification. 

The priestess was _purifying_ Inuyasha.

It shouldn’t have been possible, but that didn’t seem to be stopping this girl. His demonic energy was slowly being eaten at by this girl’s aura; the ends of his hair were turning black.

But Kagome would not stop moving.

She ran as fast as she could and, not knowing what else to do, she drove right into Inuyasha and tackled him to the ground, wrenching him from the girl’s grasp. She heard him gasp for air and groan as they hit the earth. She couldn’t stop. She turned and kneeled, placing herself between Inuyasha and the priestess, loading her bow once more. The girl stood, staring at Kagome, her head slightly cocked as if she was trying to understand something.

“You don’t _touch_ him!” Kagome screamed.

The girl took one step.

“You take one more step and I’ll pin you to a tree!”

The girl stopped. She lifted her arm and tucked the hair covering the right side of her face behind her ear, revealing something that horrified Kagome.

A shining, bright light in place of her right eye.

Kagome strengthened her position. She’d only seen that kind of thing once before and seeing it now sent chills down her spine.

“Are you working with Senso?”

The girl nodded.

This was her. This was the miko Inuyasha had mentioned, the one Senso had referred to in her dream. Rin’s descendant.

“Have you come for me?”

The girl nodded. She could feel Inuyasha’s eyes on her back.

“I don’t get it,” said Kagome. “Why would you attack him if you’re after me?”

The girl simply stared, her mouth a thin line.

“What will you do if I refuse to come with you?”

The girl stepped forward. Kagome pulled her bow taut. Then the girl stopped, frowned, and turned around.

What?

“Don’t turn your back on me, you attacked us!”

“She cannot hear you.”

From the forest came a tall, imposing figure. It was someone she’d barely even thought about from the past, but now that he was here, she was not certain if they were saved or doomed. She heard Inuyasha groan as he grabbed her arm.

It was Sesshomaru, looking as if he had walked straight out of her memories of the Feudal Era. Appearing by his side, breathing heavily as if he’d just run a marathon, was the demon Jaken, tufts of white hair behind his ears. He leaned on his demon head stick in an attempt to prop himself up.

“You must forgive my slowness my lord,” Jaken said. “I am no longer as young as I once was.”

Sesshomaru, predictably, ignored him. He stared directly at the priestess, unfazed by the eye or anything about the girl in general. It was as if he had expected this entire scene, Kagome included. Then again, that was pretty much what he always looked like, if she was remembering correctly. It was hard to catch the guy off guard.

“P-preistess?” Jaken said, staring at Kagome. At least someone had deigned to notice her. “How—”

“Makshi,” Sesshomaru said, addressing the powerful priestess before them. “Summon him.”

The girl shook her head.

“Summon who?” Kagome asked, but was ignored. Again, predictable.

“Makshi,” Sesshomaru repeated, but the girl did not move. Kagome had never seen anyone hold a stare with Sesshomaru before, but somehow, this girl was doing it. For a brief moment there was silence as the two stared, the ashes of the burnt town now rising above the trees in the distance. Then, her image shifted and dissolved, like an old fading television screen, leaving the forest without a trace. Kagome stared, dumbfounded, her jaw fully dropped.

What. The fuck. Had just happened?

She tried to process what she had just seen when she remembered that Inuyasha was still behind her, his hand still on her arm. She turned to him. “Are you alright?”

“Keh. ‘M fine,” he said, his hair returned to normal but his jaw pretty swollen. Kagome put her fingertips to the tender skin and Inuyasha tried to hide his wince.

“She got you pretty good on this side,” Kagome said.

“Nothin’ I couldn’t handle.”

“Please,” said Kagome, rolling her eyes. “At least give me credit when I save you.”

He gave her a half-smile, teasing, then frowning in the direction of his half brother.

“Fuck was that, Shehshomaru?” he asked, his swollen mouth giving him a bit of a lisp.

The dog demon spared the two of them a glance. Again, he did not appear surprised in the least that Kagome was there. Had he heard? Or was he just too aloof to care?

“Makshi is deaf. She cannot hear you, but she can read lips.”

Huh. That made sense. It explained why the girl hadn’t talked. But it still didn’t explain why she tried to purify Inuyasha, or why she had essentially leveled a town.

“Have you sheen thish before? The town?” Inuyasha asked.

“No,” Sesshomaru answered. “I believe this was specifically done to draw you out. If he had known I was in the area, I doubt he would have dared do something so foolish.”

“He? Senso?” Kagome asked.

Sesshomaru looked at her with his cold, assessing eyes, calculating whether or not she was worthy of an answer. His stare narrowed as if he figured something out, and Kagome was almost sure he was about to speak, when Jaken beat him to the punch.

“Senso has been using Makshi the miko to do his bidding,” the small demon said. “She is a descendent of Rin, Lord Sesshomaru’s most loyal companion— other than myself, of course. The vile demon and my lord have a history, you see. My lord served with Senso at first, before knowing what he was. Then he was betrayed by Senso, who took this miko. She and her family are under my lord’s protection; the impertenance was unforgiveable. Knowing she had spiritual energy, he gave her one of his eyes so that she could use both spiritual and demonic energy at the same time, and so that he could control her.”

“That’s why her energy is so…so…” Kagome couldn’t find the words to describe it. Erratic? Unstable? Fractured?

Jaken looked to Sesshomaru before answering her. “Yes. My lord has been trying to free her and stop the mad demon, but Senso uses the eye to control her. It has made it, ah, a problem with no easy resolution.”

“Sho thish ish what you’ve been up to thish whole time,” said Inuyasha. “Coulda fuckin shaid sho.”

Sesshomaru’s left eye twitched.

“It was none of your concern. You and the wolf have been toiling away with humans for centuries, lowering yourselves to serving them in their militaries and political systems. I would never disrespect the title of Lord in such a manner. You chose the path of the humans, thus I have no reason to inform you of demonic concerns. Senso will pay for his impudence. I suggest you stay out of my way in the future.”

“Wait, what is he planning?” asked Kagome. “What is he planning!?”

But it was too late. Sesshomaru was already off, Jaken following him, crying out for him to slow down. Kagome and Inuyasha were left to themselves, with their own thoughts, and with all of the questions that had just reached the surfaces of their minds.


	7. seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience. And kindness. I love hearing parts you guys enjoyed or things that resonated. Seriously makes me giddy.
> 
> After this chapter, things really start to pick up and move at a more breakneck speed. I'll try and make sure those chapters are extra special (and the last two are a bit longer than the previous chapters), but I've got an epilogue planned, then a little "after credits" scene which I got a kick out of. *shrugs*. Hopefully you guys will like the shift in pace!

After the swelling in Inuyasha’s jaw went down a bit (it only took about ten minutes, thankfully), the two went searching for wherever he’d dropped Tetsusaiga in the middle of the battle.

“I wonder how Senso was able to steal that girl right from under Sesshomaru…” Kagome wondered aloud. In her opinion, it was a pretty stupid thing to do if you actually knew the guy. Inuyasha either wasn’t listening or didn’t want to talk about it; he continued to look around the forest searching for even a glint of his sword.

“Has to be around here somewhere.”

“Mmhmm,” Kagome responded, not really invested if she had to be honest. She still had so many questions. “I can’t believe that was the priestess I heard about. She was so young.”

“Yeah, speaking of, you have some explaining to do.” Inuyasha stopped walking and turned to face her, the fading sunlight through the trees dappling his face. “Why did you ask that priestess if she came for you?”

“Uh…”

Well, she had to tell him about the dream now. It wasn’t as if she had been trying to hide it from him, but so much had happened so fast it just hadn’t ever seemed like the right time. After all, in the past day, they had been bombed, escaped, found by Kouga, stumbled upon the destroyed village, nearly been killed by a priestess and run into Sesshomaru. It was as if the past was trying to make up for all of the adventures Kagome had missed by being flung back into her present after defeating Naraku.

Though frankly, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to consider what had happened in the past day an adventure. Aside from the _very_ pleasant time she’d had with Inuyasha the night before, and perhaps her conversation with Aomame, it had all been a bit of a nightmare. Being attacked by those demons, bombed, being told that they had to go _towards_ Hiroshima instead of away from it, finding burning corpses, Inuyasha being nearly purified… not to mention the actual nightmare with Senso. Which she still hadn’t told Inuyasha about.

She sighed, and recounted the dream. It was strange, watching his face react as she mentioned Senso, his goals, and his desire for Kagome to join him. At the end of her tale it was clear Inuyasha was pissed as hell.

“That bastard’s not getting anywhere near you.”

“I’m not joining him, Inuyasha. Obviously. I don’t want you to worry.”

He groaned and ran a hand through his hair.

“I’ve had you back for two days, and some asshole is already trying to take you away from me.”

She smiled and placed her hand on his bicep. “Nobody is taking me from you. Never again.”

He sighed and pressed his lips to hers briefly, a clawed hand on the side of her face. “Damn straight.”

“Right,” she nodded. “Now lets find Tetsusaiga before it gets too dark.”

She stepped away and started down the path they had been following, unaware of Inuyasha’s concerned stare at her back.

Once they found Tetsusaiga, they decided to walk until they found rest for the night, as Inuyasha was clearly not 100% better. She’d never seen him so physically drained after a fight. She had the odd thought that maybe it was because he was so much older, that fights just took more out of him, but then, he was half-demon, so that kind of thing shouldn’t really be a problem. She held his hand as they walked, squeezing it every now and then, just as simple reassurance that she was there. She couldn’t tell if that made him feel better, or if it made him feel pitied.

It was also a good idea to walk, she’d told him, to avoid detection from other things. By her reasoning, the forest at least gave them a bit of cover while they travelled. When Inuyasha was leaping from tree to tree, it tended to make them a bit more visible to things like demons and planes. She was definitely not used to having to take enemy aircraft into consideration when traveling with him, but these were very, very different times.

After about an hour, the sun was about to set, so they found a shallow cave to spend the night. The cave was dry, thankfully, but it smelled awful, like mold and mildew. Still, it was the best that they were probably going to do, so they set down their things and Kagome got to making a fire with one of the matches in their bag.

“I swear this bag is endless… are you sure it’s not enchanted or something?”

“How the hell would I go about enchanting a bag?” Inuyasha asked, pulling out the blanket they had slept on the night before.

“I don’t know, with that ring you’ve got, I figured maybe you’d had a couple of other things enchanted.”

“That ring…?”

He looked down at his hand, appearing to have completely forgot about the ring that, when twisted, gave him a human appearance.

“Oh.”

“You never told me where you go it from.”

He shrugged. “Just a charm.”

“Inuyasha,” Kagome started, folding her knees into her chest and locking her arms around them as the fire bloomed, “you know you can tell me anything right? I mean, a lot of time has passed and I don’t want you to feel like you can’t talk about your life… what happened after I was gone.”

He sighed and crouched around the fire opposite from her. “I’m not hiding anything, Kagome—”

“I never said you were.”

“— it’s just like what you said, with the dream. Ever since you’ve been back things have been fucking crazy.”

“Hmm,” she said, stoking the fire a bit with an errant stick. “So nothing like this was happening before I got here?”

“Not all at once.” He paused and unwrapped some homemade jerky, handing some to her before biting off a piece for himself. “’S jus been shtuff happ’ning her n ther”.

Kagome fought the urge to roll her eyes. He still struggled to eat with his mouth closed.

“Ok, then,” she said. “Tell me more about Senso.”

He swallowed, then narrowed his eyes. “Why? Is there more you aren’t telling me about this dream you had?”

“No, I told you everything. It wasn’t a very long dream. It’s just, if he appears again, I’d like to know more about what I’m up against.”

“You’re not gonna face him alone,” Inuyasha said, his voice fierce.

She smiled at him. “I know that. But if we meet him, or I have another dream… it would just help, is all.”

He nodded and set his jerky down.

“Like I said a while ago, we first ran into him after Nanjing. He took responsibility for it. All the murder, rape, pillaging00. Still don’t know if it _was_ him, but the prick claimed it as something due to his ‘influence’. Then he kept showing up around war crimes, speaking with high ranking officials, including Sesshomaru, who’s had ties to the military for years, though he’d never go so far as to make himself look human to join them. A few months after Nanjing I enlisted. Kouga did too; wanted to infiltrate their top tier. Out of the two of us, guess who they thought was more fucking charismatic?” he smirked in spite of himself. “So he got promoted up and I stayed in the lower ranks. Fine by me; you know how much I can’t stand all that elegant and expensive shit, and I got to hear things from the other troops. Rumors, stuff that was usually filtered when we were around some of the higher-ranking officials. Plus, it’s not like the demons in the military would have allowed a half demon at their level. Generally, demons got higher up jobs, especially if they were willing to kiss Senso’s ass.”

She couldn’t help but scowl. Still. Still, he was having to face adversity for being who he was; a half demon. She wanted to say something, to voice her disgust at the world, but she’d be kidding herself. The world was filled with prejudices that continued into her modern era. Was it really so surprising that half demons were still considered less-than? It made her sick. It made her angry. But at least he knew that she loved him the way he was, that she would always love him the way he was. She only wished she could do more to make him feel accepted.

He must have noticed her line of thinking, because the next thing he said was “Kagome, it’s fine. Not like I expected anything different.”

“It’s not fine,” she said, “but continue.”

“From what Kouga, Sesshomaru and I gathered, he’s from the mainland. Came over a little after our fight with Naraku. Seems like he’s much older than that, though, and maybe from somewhere further east. Wherever he goes, war follows. Nobody’s ever seen him do it, but the other soldiers talk about how he can corrupt a man’s heart so he’ll kill his best friend.

“As for the miko, she’s a recent add on to his operation, whatever the fuck he’s doing. Makshi is a descendent of Rin’s from way further east. She wasn’t even a practicing miko until he found her and gave her one of his eyes.”

That explained the bright spot hidden by her hair.

“What do you mean? She was just a normal girl until he gave her his eye and she became a miko?”

“No, she had spiritual powers, and was living here in Japan with family. Rumor has it, after he kidnapped her, he replaced one of her eyes with his so she’d have both demonic _and_ spiritual energy. All under his control.”

“Can anything house that kind of energy? Both spiritual and demonic?”

He shook his head. “Not for long. She’s kept it together for months but it’s only a matter of time before it tears her apart.”

Kagome pursed her lips and looked at the fire.

“That could explain why she was able to partially purify you into a human,” she said. “Harnessing both types of energy.”

He nodded. “Yeah. That felt like shit.”

“That poor girl. She’s so young.”

“Older than you were when we started looking for the jewel shards.”

Wow. She hadn’t thought about it, but that was true. She had been through some pretty horrible things in the Feudal Era, all before her sixteenth birthday. 

“There’s still one thing that doesn’t make sense, though,” Kagome said. “If Sesshomaru and Senso are both high-ranking demons, or at least respected in the higher circles, then why would Senso risk pissing Sesshomaru off? I mean, he doesn’t seem like someone that would make a mistake so foolish.”

Inuyasha shrugged his shoulders. “Could be that he thought Sesshomaru wouldn’t care about one human. But it was pretty well known that you didn’t screw with Sesshomaru’s humans, no matter how much you hated the human race. Also coulda been that there’s not a lot of spiritual energy left these days.”

Kagome frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Humans with spiritual powers tend to have kids with whoever they want. Demons like things pure. So as time went on, there were less and less powerful mikos.”

“If that’s true, then why not just kill all the humans? Isn’t that what it was always about?’

Inuyasha gave her a sad, almost pitying expression. “Kagome, that’s the whole point. Demons realized a while ago that sustaining human life keeps them happy, keeps them fed, and keeps them supplied with whatever they need, whenever they want it. Other demons are not as easy to boss around. That’s why Senso’s plan started to piss everyone off once it became clear it was more about killing everything than it was about winning the war.”

Kagome nodded, still staring at the fire. The flames danced and crackled in front of her, giving off a strong heat in the cool night.

“So he went underground, and you’ve been trying to find him,” she said. “Then why burn that human village down today? To draw us out?” She shook her head, answering before Inuyasha could even take the question in. “To draw me out. For some reason he needs me.”

Inuyasha was staring at her again, his eyes deep pools of gold and his mouth tense. So, so tense. She knew what he was thinking. She was thinking it, too. She had been the strongest miko in centuries when she was born. There was only one thing Senso could want her for, and that was to have yet another super-powered miko by his side.

After all, he had another eye.

They spent the night flush against the cave wall. Inuyasha sat with his back against the rock, and Kagome sat on his lap, curled into his chest. She’d taken her hair down and changed back into Aomame’s pajamas, and Inuyasha had draped the blanket and firerat over the both of them as the fire began to weaken. Warmth flooded from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Even with everything that had happened in the past couple of days, she couldn’t help but feel that things were just _right_ for the first time in a long time. Her life back home seemed so, so long ago— she’d been pursuing acting. Why in the hell had she been pursuing acting? Was it because she was already used to hiding what she was feeling? To put on a face of being ‘fine’ when inside she felt permanently bruised? Now she didn’t feel the need to fool anyone. The honesty of it all felt like sunlight washing away the darkness. Like those bruises had just been smudges of dust the whole time. She breathed in and out, steady, hovering between sleeping and waking. She felt his nose in her hair.

“I still can’t believe you’re back,” he murmured. She wasn’t sure if he knew she was still awake or not. She wasn’t sure if he cared. He continued to mutter as he drew her in closer with his arms.

“I’ve been so lonely, Kagome. I didn’t realize it but when you left it felt like… it felt like when my mother died and I was all on my own again. Like the person I was born for was ripped from me. All I ever wanted to do was protect you, damn it, and the well couldn’t even give me that. I don’t know what brought you here, but I don’t really fucking care,” he whispered. “And it’s probably selfish to keep you here when your family is still waiting for you, but _I don’t really fucking care_. I’ll do whatever it takes, even if it kills me. Even then, I don’t think I could stop protecting you. I‘d probably come back as a fucking ghost and haunt you. I’d scare the shit out of you, Kagome, and I wouldn’t even care. I’m not giving you back. You’re my home. I’m never giving you back.”

She fought the tears that came to her eyes. He’d never been one for speeches, but sometimes, when he really opened up… dammit, he really opened up. She sent a thank you up to whatever spiritual entity had brought her there. And if she wasn’t so tired, so warm, she would have told him that she felt the same way. That it would take more than death to take her away. That it would take more than atomic bomb to separate them— even time and space had tried and failed. They may have been walking toward the very place she was desperate to keep him away from, but she would be there, and they would not be separated, and he would not die.

She faded into dreams as she heard his last admission:

“It’ll take a hell of a lot more than a fucking war demon.”

A fucking war…

War..

 _A fucking war demon_.

_“Charming mouth your half-demon has.”_

—

She had been so, so comfortable.

Now it was as if the floor had been dropped from beneath her. She was once again on a dark path, in deep woods, unearthly fog coiling around her bare legs. She was also in her school uniform again, which, yikes. A cold wind gusted around her and she felt it in her bones. She pulled up an arrow as soon as she heard the menacing voice ringing in her head.

“Charming mouth your half-demon has.”

She drew her bow taut, ready to release.

“Senso! Show yourself!”

Again, a dark, figure strode down the path, moving toward her. This time she could see his features a bit better— his face gaunt, his stature that of someone uncomfortable with their own height, like a grim reaper. A harbinger of death. Was this how he had appeared in his picture? Or did he look more inhuman somehow? Still, his one remaining demonic eye flashed as he blinked at her.

“What did you think of Makshi? Quite talented, isn’t she?”

Kagome frowned in disgust. “You took an innocent girl from her home and corrupted her. That’s not talent. That’s kidnapping. Let her go.”

“You forgot, I also used her to slaughter a village. Not that anyone else will hear about it, what with all reports focusing on the war effort. No matter; these areas will likely not survive the days to come. But you know that, don’t you?”

Her nocked arrow shook as her body vibrated with rage. “The bombs. Are you telling me the bombs are your doing?”

“Kagome, I _wish_ I could take full credit for those beautiful weapons. Sadly, that was all mankind. I may have aided communications, but really, it was only speeding up the inevitable.” He stepped closer to her, and she took one step back. The ground underneath her feet felt a bit soft, but she knew she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. This was not a man to turn your back on, even for a moment.

“You are from the future, yes?” he said, his tone earnest. “You’ve seen what normal humans have done with things. They’ve made a filthy mess. They’ve taken their own filth and spread it across the earth. They’ve littered the waters, they’ve poisoned the skies, and even when they are told what to do and how to do it in order to purify things, they cannot. It’s tragedy of the highest order.”

“Then why not let them?” she shouted. “Why not leave well enough alone, if you’re so convinced that everything’s going to turn out terrible in the end, anyway?!”

“Because they are going to take everything else with them,” he said. “Demons, spirituals, animals, plants, the very ground you walk on. You’ve heard the tale of the dog sled, haven’t you? If a dog on the team falls through the ice, it puts the whole team in danger. So what do you do? Do you allow the dog to drag the entire team to icy deaths, or do you cut the one dog loose and save the rest of the team? Why not save the majority from the struggle?” He pursed his lips, pitying her. “Don’t you believe in mercy, Kagome?”

She was really shaking now. Her vision was almost blurring, she was so furious. She could hear her blood pumping through her ears, and she was mere seconds from letting that arrow fly and _destroying_ this man.

“I believe what you’re talking about is mercy _killing_ , Senso. And as for the dog,” she said, unable to get the image of a fluffy white-haired dog trapped in the ice out of her head, “I’d go in after it myself.”

He shook his head. “That would put the whole team at risk, Kagome! They’d be left to fend for themselves.”

“I’m not leaving him!”

Senso looked like he was about to speak, and then he paused. A slick smile curled at the corner of his mouth as if he had just caught her in a lie, or worse, in the truth.

“You have so much potential, Kagome. To waste it on some genetic aberration, some vestigial form of existence, a half demon—”

“ _Shut up!!_ ” she cried, letting the arrow fly. Senso deflected it harmlessly and it flew into the void.

“Are you even trying, Kagome?” asked Senso. “That wouldn’t have killed a bird.”

She breathed heavily, trying to get a grip on her emotions. But this man, though he had always been vile, was now suggesting that she leave Inuyasha, that he was somehow not worthy, less-than. She’d heard it so many times before and each time pushed her closer to the edge. She wasn’t an angry person, but he was threatening Inuyasha. All bets were off.

She reloaded the bow. Then an idea struck her that may de-escalate the situation.

“Maybe you should just give up on me, then, if my arrows can’t even hurt a bird. Clearly I’m not the priestess you thought I was.”

_So just leave us alone, leave us alone, leave us alone._

Senso blinked again, his expression sad. He was truly pitying her now. “No, that’s not it. I don’t think you can do it in dreams like you can in real life. Or perhaps I haven’t made you angry enough. Perhaps I need to break you before I rebuild you.”

What— what had he— what _was_ he—

“I though you would have been more receptive, Kagome, especially after your visit with Makshi. But it looks like I’ll have to put a little effort in.”

“What are you talking about?!”

He got close enough to whisper, pressing his chest into the arrowhead of her loaded shot.

“Enjoy your week with your half-demon, Kagome.”

She let the arrow fly and everything exploded— bright light— warmth flooding her body—

She woke up screaming.

—

“Shhh, shhh, shhh, Kagome, I’m here.”

She heard her scream die in her throat. Her eyes blinked open, taking in the darkness of the cave. Her back was flush with Inuyasha’s chest. She felt his strong arms still locked around her, only now they had her in a tight grip, as if she were going to flail and run the second he let go.

Or maybe she had already tried.

“Kagome, what the fuck happened?” His voice rumbled into her back. She was safe, now. Senso was gone. It had been a dream. But it had been a weirdly interactive dream, and she feared that the consequences of it may be more than figments of her sleeping mind.

“Inuyasha,” she said, still a bit out of it. “Was I screaming?”

“Yeah. Scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry.”

“Keh,” he scoffed. “Don’t apologize for that. A fuck ton has happened in the past few days. Something tells me you weren’t having a nightmare about that, though.”

“Why?”

“Because you were screaming my name,” he said, still keeping her locked in his embrace. It was so tight she hadn’t been able to turn around and look at him. “And threatening someone.”

She said nothing, only tried to melt into him more.

“You gonna tell me, or am I gonna find out when its too late?”

She sighed. It was still so vivid for her. But she should probably tell him. So she recounted what she’d just dreamed, all the while staring at the opposite side of the cave, watching as daybreak shone over the tree line and filtered into entrance of the shallow cave. At their feet were the ashes of the fire they’d started the night before. Inuyasha’s grip on her held fast as she told him everything she could remember, and she could remember a lot because it was all still pretty fresh.

“I’m just afraid he’s going to try something before they drop the bombs,” she said. “I know we need to find him and stop him, and I don’t want to sound selfish, but can’t we just… I don’t know… stay here until it’s over?”

“The war?”

She nodded. He gave a long sigh.

“I know, I know,” she said. She’d felt bad for even suggesting it. Hiding wasn’t who they were. It sounded like a nice dream, though.

“Wanna stay like this for at least another hour, though…” he said, nuzzling his face into the crook of her neck. She reciprocated moving one of his hands to her lips and pressing it gently to them.

“’Kay.”

—

When they awoke the weather had turned hot and humid. It was early August, and they were heading south, but it was still pretty uncomfortable. The sweat caking to her skin felt like a sticky film. It was to the point that she wanted to take her shirt off, but that would have been a bit…er… awkward.

Not that it stopped Inuyasha from taking _his_ shirt off, though.

At first she was just jealous of his freedom. It was _hot_ , and she would have loved to just strip so that a bit more of her skin could feel the slightest breeze. But at the same time, jealousy was not the feeling she felt at all. Seeing him slick with sweat, bare-chested, offering her his naked back so that she could grasp onto his wet skin for a ride… it was a more than she had bargained for that early in the morning. A lot more. Her heartbeat quickened.

Noting her hesitation, and apparently quicker on the uptake than he’d once been, he smirked and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Got a problem, Kagome?”

“N-no! Why would I have a problem? I have no problem.”

He put his hands on his hips, displaying his chest in an almost macho manner. “So you don’t have a problem.”

“No, nothing at all!” She heard her voice go up a few octaves as her face flushed with heat. More heat. Heat everywhere. “No problems here! We should go, shouldn’t we? We should probably go…”

In the blink of an eye he was in front of her, holding her face, kissing her softly. She groaned. Damn. That was not helping the heat _at all_.

She nearly growled when he pulled away and settled his hands on her shoulders. “If it makes you that uncomfortable then I can put the shirt back on. Might make it easier to grab onto.”

“Believe me,” she said, nearly breathless. “The shirt is _not_ the problem.”

His hands slid down her arms and settled low on her waist, almost at her hips. Now he was the one looking a bit uncomfortable.

“Inuyasha?”

“I already said I’m not givin you back, Kagome. When all this is over,” he said, leaning forward, that idiotic smirk returning to lips, “I’m gonna make you as uncomfortable as possible. But I’m not rushing it. We’re gonna do it right.”

The way he talked, the way he moved, the way he held her made it almost impossible to believe he’d never been with anyone before. He had to have somehow learned how to do what he was doing to her. But, then again, she supposed living a long life involved seeing a lot of relationships, hearing a lot of stories… and he’d spent plenty of time with Miroku, which, well, would have corrupted an angel, let alone a demon.

Or maybe he just knew _her_. Knew exactly what would get under her skin. She couldn’t pretend she hadn’t thought of what exactly she would do to him… especially with those _ears_.

She had apparently had her jaw open, because he used a finger to shut it before walking over and putting his shirt back on.

He knelt down and gestured to the backpack, then his back. “You comin?”

She sighed and shook her head, wondering how someone could feel as much as she had felt in the past few days and not explode.


	8. eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're not supposed to pick favorites. But this right here is my favorite chapter of the whole thing. :) Bon appetite!

**EIGHT**

Inuyasha’s strength had clearly returned, and they made good time as they flew south towards their target—Kure. They’d slept in a bit, and she wasn’t quite sure where they were, but the smell of the air had grown less forest-like and more like the sea. Now she was on his back again and they flew through the treetops once more. They were risking being seen, sure, but they had to make up for the time they lost walking.

A curious thought hit her. “Are we close to Kyoto?”

Inuyasha slowed down and sniffed the air.

“Yeah, I think so. Why?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. It’s just a place I’ve always wanted to visit.”

“You mean you never visited? In the present?”

“No.” She paused. “Never. I didn’t really travel much. I didn’t want to be away in case…”

_In case you came back._

She didn’t have to explain. He squeezed her legs and she hugged him just a little tighter.

“Wanna check it out?”

Her eyes widened. “We don’t really have time, do we?”

She felt him shrug underneath her. “We’re traveling by there anyway. Could just run through.”

She thought about it. She’d always wanted to see Kyoto. And the island of Hokkaido. And China, and India, and Russia, and Europe, and America, and anywhere and everywhere. Some kind of adventure would have been the best distraction, the way to move on, but she couldn’t risk it. She couldn’t risk being somewhere else and missing him. It was easier to stay in Tokyo, work on her education and then career, and wait.

But she wasn’t waiting anymore. And she knew from experience— there was no other travel buddy she’d rather have.

“Sure.”

Kagome would be the first to admit that she knew absolutely nothing about architecture, but she’d seen pictures, and Kyoto did not disappoint. There were temples and shrines that had withstood war and earthquakes, and still managed to look holy and beautiful. The colors were bright and vibrant against the dusty summer streets. Perhaps even better was the fact that she was getting somewhat of a birds-eye view, thanks to Inuyasha. From the Torii gates at the Fushimi Inari Shrine to the pagoda at the Kiyomizu-dera Temple, every historic site in the city was a tribute to the beauty of the land and its people. Contrasted in the hazy sky, the clear and crisp lines of the historic towers were like a language of faith that anyone could speak. Kagome and Inuyasha passed next to them in the air and even in the heat of the day, the scenery gave her the chills.

Until all hell broke loose.

One second she was flying safe and secure in the air with Inuyasha, admiring the splendor, and the next they were crashing into forest floor. Inuyasha turned mid-air and enveloped her as they hit the ground hard. She could have sworn she heard something in his chest crack.

“Inu—Inuyasha!” she shouted, pushing herself off of him. His eyes were squeezed shut in pain but he grabbed her arm. “What happened?”

“Demon,” he said, wincing. “Hare.”

“Hair? Yura is back?”

“No, the animal.”

She frantically looked behind her. She only saw thick, impenetrable foliage, and the small clearing in which they had landed. Nothing rustled the leaves, nothing snapped a branch.

“I don’t see them— I don’t see anything.”

“They’re really fucking fast.” He wheezed, and her chest tightened. She rested a hand on his neck, wishing she could somehow help him breathe.She didn’t think she’d ever seen him fall at such a speed before and it showed. His eyes squeezed shut tightly and he groaned as he tried to sit up.

“Inuyasha, stay down, you’re hurt!”

“Kagome— move!”

He pushed her off of him and her back hit the ground a short distance away. Less than a second later something attacked Inuyasha again, moving so fast she had trouble seeing anything other than large, hairy feet aimed directly at Inuyasha’s chest. He turned a bit, saving his ribcage but his left arm wasn’t so lucky. She heard it snap. The following cry of pain from her half demon shook her out of her shock. She took the bag off her back and pulled out the Tetsusaiga, yelling and tossing it in his direction, but he couldn’t reach it. His movements were strained, and he was still on the ground.

Damnit, why couldn’t they catch a break?!

She had to think fast. She loaded her bow with shaking hands— she still had about seven arrows in the quiver— and held it tight, unsure of where to aim. It wasn’t like before when she could sense jewel shards in demons and track them as they flit in and out of sight. It felt like she was fighting blind.

So she tried something different. She reached deep inside herself, the part that she used to call on when hunting jewel shards. Then, just as she was about to give up hope, she felt a tug of intagible energy to her right. Just a bit at first, then it got stronger. It pulled as the creature moved, first more towards the right, then less pulling as it approached. She felt another from her left side, and another from right in front of her.

“I’ve got three Inuyasha!” she said, unsure of which way to point the arrow first. They were moving so fast.

“Kagome, watch—!”

She’d missed the fourth demon, and instantly regretted it. She turned to try and hit it in time, but the demon was too fast. It landed on her gut, kicking her back about five meters, the wind knocked out of her. From what seemed like a great distance, she heard Inuyasha scream her name. The second she hit the ground, she felt as if she had been knocked out of reality and into a dream. Her mind struggled to keep up with her body. Was she alive? Was she breathing?

“Senso said to bring her in alive!” yelled one of the demons, sounding much too close for comfort. So apparently she was alive, but she felt stuck in place, as if her body would not move even if she told it to.

“Just kickin’ them around a bit.”

“Yeah, well, now we gotta carry the bitch.”

At her feet she heard Inuyasha growl ferociously. Her vision was a little blurry, but she thought she could make out his form trying to lift himself off the ground with one arm. His other arm hung uselessly at his side.

“Leave her _the fuck_ alone,” he warned, his teeth bared.

She couldn’t make out much of the hare demons other than the large feet that padded up next to her. Her back was starting to feel something again, and unfortunately, it was all pain. She tried to speak but all that came out was some sort of half-sob, half-groan.

“Don’t move Kagome!” Inuyasha shouted. His voice was starting to sound rough, rougher than normal.

“Quiet, half demon. This is none of your concern. We’re on official business from the god of war to retrieve what is his.”

She wanted to scream. In no way, shape, or form was she or would she _ever_ belong to the god of war. She didn’t belong _to_ anyone. She belonged _with_ Inuyasha. But this was all background noise in her head compared to flashing lights of pain building behind her eyes.

From the corner of her eye, she could see him, too, at the base of a large tree. He was propped up on one elbow, barely off the ground, but there was something odd in his posture. He wasn’t looking up. He was facing down, as if steeling himself. His injured left arm hung limp at his side, but then it… changed. As if by some sort of perverse magic, it began to twitch. Slowly, it slid across the ground, the bone of his upper arm cracking, righting itself. His arm was now in front of him, his fingers splayed, and his claws were sharp and long. His head raised, and the eyes beneath the wisps of short silver hair were blood red. Jagged purple slashes painted his cheekbones.

Shit.

She inhaled a shaky, wheezy breath, and that was apparently his cue.

Above her she watched blurs fight to the death. Her first instinct was to look for red— he’d always been wearing red in her memories and in her dreams— but he was still in that white shirt now. Damn. The only red she saw were the red eyes of the demons and of her beloved half demon. Most of it was a lot of white, beige, and brown against a blue backdrop. The only sounds she could hear were snarls, cracking of bones, snapping of branches and painful cries, none of it identifiable from a particular half demon. She could do nothing but watch. She wanted to reach out to him, to pull him out of his demon state, but she knew that was probably the only thing keeping him moving right now. Still, she tried to raise her arms, and found that she could not.

“Ih—”

‘Shut up, bitch,” hissed someone in her ear. Blinking, all she could make out was a leg of white fur. She tried to make a sound of panic, but all that came out was the same syllable— “ih”— before she felt a surge of sharp, fresh pain shoot through her body. The ground seemed to move underneath her; she felt the grass and dirt pass beneath her hands and fingers, until she realized— she was being dragged.

“Nn—”

“One more sound and I’ll collapse your vocal cords.”

She gasped as he dragged her over some stones. Treetops began to invade her view of the sky. They were heading into the forest. Strangely, the first thing that came to mind were all of the ridiculous safety training videos she’d had to watch in school. The whole “if kidnapped, never let them take you to a secondary location” bit. In the past she’d thoughts it was kind of funny. She’d managed to escape her kidnappers multiple times, regardless of whether or not they took her to a secondary location, so it didn’t seem to matter.

Now it very much seemed to matter. Especially since she was pretty sure she was going into shock.

She didn’t realize how much she had drawn on her powers of sensing the jewel shards in the past, but she was certainly aware of it now. How could she have allowed them to be so blindsided? How could she have let herself be so free with him right now, days before Hiroshima? Had she forgotten what she had come for? Now they were closer than ever to the blast area, getting closer every hour. Her body was broken, at worst paralyzed, and Inuyasha had gone full demon. And she was nowhere close enough to bring him back to himself. Back to the Inuyasha she knew.

The last thought she could identify was the memory of being wrapped in his arms in the cave, warm and cocooned. The sky went white, then dark, and she thought no more.

—

Kagome had been in a lot of caves in her life. This was a rather odd thing to say about a girl from the 21st century, but she felt that it made her sort of special. After all, how many modern people could tell bear caves from wolf caves by scent alone? It was a skill that had come in handy once or twice before, and sure enough, here it was coming in handy again. At least she could be certain that she was in no way in any sort of cave of a wolf or a bear. It smelled too much like rotten vegetables to belong to either one of those animals.

After the stench of rotten vegetables passed, the next smell to pass over her was the wafted scent of boiled vegetables and herbs; some sort of soup. Even in her half-dead stupor, her mouth began to reflexively water. Soup sounded _wonderful_. Especially because the next sensation to hit her was how cold she was. Her feet in particular felt frozen, exposed to the elements. She supposed that was maybe a good thing— at least her sense of touch was still in tact, but it also made her think about the last time her feet were cold. How she had wrapped herself under the firerat robe, pressing her cold skin to his hot skin, greedily absorbing the warmth. And then he’d started to completely consume her.

Inuyasha.

_Inuyasha!_

She tried to sit up but immediately felt the soreness of her ribs, and she sank back down. The whole ordeal came back to her like a particularly vicious boomerang; getting knocked out of the sky, Inuyasha being seriously injured, her body being essentially jumped on, and her half demon shifting into his most dangerous form. The one that could overwhelm him if he wasn’t able to get to Tetusaiga, if she wasn’t able to bring him back.

No. No. No no no no no…

What if this was how it happened? What if this was how he ended up being in danger in the first place? Who knows; if Inuyasha had stayed in Tokyo, would Kouga have still found him to tell him about the location of their contact close to Hiroshima? Probably, but he would have been able to get in and out without the burden of carrying her. He could have maybe even found Senso, killed him, and stopped the war. A million possibilities. What if she was the one to bring him his doom?

No, that she could not accept. If she had set him on this path, then she had to get him off of it. Broken body or no.

“I smell fear… and pain. She must be awake.”

She heard the shuffling and thumping of large feet come closer and closer. She couldn’t yet move her neck to see where they were, but she could hear those feet coming, with their thudding flops on the ground. How had they not heard them in the forest?

Right, because these things were fast.

“Resting well, little miko?”

Kagome took in a sharp breath. How did they know what she was?

“H-how-” she couldn’t get out more than a word.

“How did we know?” the voice that was conversing with her was nasally, as if its nose had been pinched. “The god of war told us. He said only we could capture you because of how fast we are, and you would never see us coming. It worked.”

The creature was now hovering over her and though blurry, she could make out its features. Two long front teeth protruded from an elongated mouth and nose. It was covered in tawny fur, and had long ears that hung down nearly to the floor. Its hands were almost human, but covered in fur, and its arms were short. The eyes and the teeth were both an icteric yellow.

And it was at least two meters tall.

Kagome tried to scream but once again, her vocal cords refused to cooperate. The hare demon must have sensed her panic because he smiled in response, showing layers of sharp teeth behind the two front ones, making the effect all the more terrifying.

“No one can hear you, little miko. We have you far, far away from the lowly dog. And once we heal you, we will bring you to the god of war and reap our rewards.”

That ‘lowly dog’ was more dangerous than they could possibly know. She wanted to tell them, to demand they let her go so she could calm him, but she knew that wouldn’t work. She looked around the cave as best as she could, her neck still stiff but a tad more flexible, and noticed another demon boiling something in a cauldron. The soup, she hoped. But other than that, it appeared that two out of the four demons were not there.

“You’re still outnumbered, even if there are just two of us,” the demon sneered, taking notice of her stare. “And you’re all alone.”

_‘All alone’, huh? Something tells me we won’t be for very long._

After an indeterminable amount of time lying there, staring up at the roof of the barely lit cave, she thought she heard worried whispers. She smiled. Their friends must not have returned.

She couldn’t say how long she continued in that position, staring up at the rock ceiling. Her head swam with a million things she would be, _should be_ doing, but just couldn’t physically. And she wondered, where was he? How was he? He had been so badly injured that it had brought out his demon side. Had that been enough to dispose of the other two demons, and that’s why they weren’t back yet? Or had they taken advantage of his wounds and— and—

She couldn’t let herself think that way. A tear leaked out of the corner of her eye and she felt it trickle coldly down into her hair. She couldn’t lose him. Not again.

The time that was passing was torturous, but it did give her time to think about things. Put things into perspective. So much had happened in the past few days, and was continuing to happen, that she felt that she must have been sent back to that particular time for a reason. Why else would it have been precisely then, rather than years before the war? Was there something she was supposed to do here? And had that red light in the well really intended to just send her back to save Inuyasha, or had it sent her back for something else?

Sooner or later—she couldn’t really tell exactly when— the other hare demon in the cave brought her soup. Gently her head was was lifted up and a small tin cup was placed to her lips in yellow-clawed, human-like hands. For a moment she considered that it might be poison, and she definitely shouldn’t drink it, but that would have defeated the whole purpose of kidnapping her. If they wanted her dead, they could have just left her the way she was. She carefully sipped and in an instant, she felt relief. She hadn’t realized how dry her throat had become until the warm liquid drained down to her stomach, seeming to heal as it did. She felt it travel through her chest— not only because it was warm, but it did something to her spine. It felt tingly, like something was correcting any displacement or fracture, but slowly so as not to do any further damage. She continued to drink, almost greedy for the liquid now, and as her arms began to feel as though they could move again, she was able to push herself up further and take the tin from the demon. The demon chuckled when she slurped the last bit.

“Plenty more where that came from. I’ll get you more.”

This demon was very different from the others. It had the same terrifying features, but something in its demeanor was softer, more nurturing. When it came back, Kagome noted that the demon was humming to itself, taking a bit of joy in its mundane work.

“Thh-thank you,” Kagome was finally able to speak, but instead chose to drink more of the soup.

“It’s good to see my recipes enjoyed so enthusiastically.”

Kagome took a pause. “It’s healing me.”

The giant hare nodded. “My special blend of herbs, mixed with a touch of demonic energy. Wasn’t sure you’d take it well, given that you have different spiritual energy, but it seems to agree with you. Probably why the god of war wants you.”

“Are you really going to give me to him?”

“Of course, why not?”

The reason seemed too obvious, but she stated it anyway. “Because I don’t want to go with him.”

“And yet, if you do, the god of war will succeed, and we will have our home back.”

Kagome took another healing sip and felt tingling in her hip bone. “What do you mean, have your home back?”

The hare demon’s eyes became sad, and it sat next to her, folding one gigantic leg over another. “Humans have wrought great evil upon our earth. We hare demons always existed peacefully before things became more… what’s the word? Ah, yes, industrial. It was the beginning of the end.” Kagome had finished her drink, so the hare demon took the empty tin can and placed it next to them. “I wish we had recognized it for what it was. But we thought, surely it will never reach us. But this war has changed everything. It has depleted our resources, our earth, our trees and plants and grasses to make space for more machines, more industry, more chemicals and oils. By the time we realized what was happening, it was too late. Our lands were already being poisoned.”

Kagome sighed. There was nothing she could say to convince the demon otherwise or assuage their fear, because she agreed. _And_ she knew it got worse. Much worse. It would be hard to even begin to explain the effects of climate change to a hare demon, but it was exactly what they feared. One thing didn’t make much sense, though.

“Then why are you supporting a man who’s building a bomb? Won’t that destroy your land, too?”

The hare demon folded its hands together thoughtfully. “Yes, for a time. But nature is resilient. If allowed it will take back the land for greenery and peace.”

“But it won’t do that,” said Kagome. “It’s a nuclear bomb he’s building. The radiation alone will kill and mutate the creatures nearby, and will stay in the earth for years.”

The hare raised its eyebrows in suspicion. “Certainly nothing has the power to do that. You are being foolish. My friend warned me that you might try and be foolish.”

“Your friend…” Back and hips healed, she now felt that she could look around the cave. The place was empty except for the two of them, the piles of soft grasses she was laying on, and the makeshift eating area where the demon had made the soup.

“Where are they?”

“Joined the rest of my friends to make sure the business with that half demon was done.”

A chill rose up her newly healed spine. _He must be ok, he’s ok, he has to be_.

“I will get you more soup.” The hare demon rose, leaving Kagome sitting alone. She stared out of the mouth of the cave and was met with the night sky and dark woods. Outside she heard a rumble of what sounded like thunder. Was it more rain? Or was it something else?

She heard another rumble and wasn’t so sure.

What should she do? Should she call out for him? Could he hear her? Would he even respond? And if he did, what version of him would she find?

The hare demon handed her a fresh cup of soup, then stepped toward the cave opening.

“I will lead them back to us.”

The creature took slow, loping steps to the cave opening and disappeared in a single bound.

So now she was alone. Now was her chance.

She scrambled up from the grass, finding that her body was functioning just as well as it had before the attack, if not better. She wished she had a minute to get the recipe, or at least bottle the stuff, but she knew her time was limited. She looked around the cave for any sign of her bow and arrow. Nothing. Unless she counted a boiling hot cauldron of medicinal soup, there was nothing of use in the cave, period.

So she’d make a run for it.

As quietly as she could, she tiptoed towards the edge of the cave. Another booming sound, closer, this time followed by a warlike cry, in the otherwise dark and silent forest. She approached the edge, ready to sprint, when she looked over the edge.

They were up. Way up. At least fifteen, maybe more meters up, with a shear rock face plummeting into the earth.

Of course. That’s why her wardens had been so comfortable leaving her alone.

A few options ran through her head. She could try and jump into the trees— she’d done it before, but she’d always had Inuyasha or Kirara to catch her. She could try and scale the wall, but she wasn’t the best climber, and it wasn’t like she’d been taking rock climbing classes in the future. She could call out to him, but she’d already run through that scenario in her head.

Before she could pick a way forward, she heard a snarl, loud and closing in fast, and something flew past her into the cave. She turned to look back, barely able to see with the flickering light underneath the cauldron. Whatever had leapt into the room was now hunched into a dark, breathing mass deeper into the cave. Ragged breaths left its lungs, its shoulders lifted and then shuddered downward in release. Like a wounded animal.

She approached him carefully. Her feet were bare on the dirt floor and made nearly no noise at all. She had a fear, closer to confirmation with every step traveled towards the only source of light. Illuminated in the glow sat a bloodied mass with bright red eyes.

“I—Inuyasha?”

She had whispered, but in the quiet, she might as well have been screaming. His head snapped up and he snarled. There was black blood caked on his short hair, mixed in with the red, and some of it streaked down his face over the tell-tale purple stripes. A low growl emitted from him in warning. The message was clear: do not come any closer.

But what was also clear is how injured he really was. The rest of him was just as covered in blood as his head; his white shirt now bore stains of multiple colors, some from grass and mud, and others more sinister. He was curled over on himself, trying to pull himself into a ball, but his face never left hers. His eyes never left hers.

“Please,” she whispered, “let me help you.”

The growling continued. She took a step, and it got louder.

“ _Please_ , Inuyasha, let me help you,” she begged again. But it was no use. He was far too animalistic, far too defensive. If she was really going to get any further she had to come up with a way to disarm those defenses. How did one approach a wounded animal? Usually, one didn’t. She did have one idea, though. Carefully, still feeling too far from him, she lowered herself down to the ground. She realized that the skirt she’d been wearing before had been torn or something, because she felt the cold dirt floor on her knees.

“Inuyasha?”

His eyes were intense upon her, but now they were more curious than anything. The growling had softened. She’d done something right. So she continued, and tucked her legs underneath her, sitting atop her heels. Her arms went intentionally limp towards the ground, and she held her hands palms-open towards him. The growling stopped.

Now what?

She placed her hands on her thighs and he watched her every move with fascination. She had to have been the most non-threatening thing he’d seen since the attack, and she hoped it would give her some power of persuasion.

He continued to stare, his breath getting louder and more ragged, no longer covered by his rumbling growl. Watching the man she loved covered in wounds, his breathing such a wretched, unsettling sound— it was too much. She didn’t know where else to go, or how to help him.

“Please, Inuyasha,” she pleaded, her voice barely a whisper. “Let me help you. Show me how I can help you.”

She reached out to him, again, with an open palm. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes as she leaned forward towards him, just an arm’s length away. Cautious, he loosened his hold on himself, opening up with his back still against the wall. She crawled, reaching towards his face, and when she made contact, she nearly broke down. She could feel the muck and detritus plastered there, but she also felt his skin, warm and soft. He leaned his head into her hand, almost nuzzling it, and she realized he may have recognized her in some deep, dark part of his subconscious. Somehow he knew who she was.

“Home,” he said, his voice like gravel. Not Kagome, not woman, not priestess, not human. Home. His home. She couldn’t help but smile through the tears.

“Yes, home,” she whispered. “You’re okay. I’m here.”

The rest of the night was touch and go. She decided early on that she didn’t need to worry about the hare demons returning— the amount of black blood on Inuyasha told her all she needed to know. Once he’d trusted her, she tried to go and get him some soup, but he grabbed her hand, afraid to let go. She consoled him again with touch, smoothing down his hair, rubbing his ears for good measure, and when he had relaxed a bit, she rushed over to the pot of soup, which she hoped was still warm; the fire was dying. She carried over a tin cup of the stuff to him, taking a sip to show him it was okay to drink, and after a tentative sniff, he took it. He downed the entire thing, fast, clearly enjoying it, so she brought him more, and more, and more, all the while soothing him with her touch and the sound of her voice while he drank. With each gulp, she noticed the purple streaks fading and his eyes lightening to their original gold. When he dropped the cup on the ground, she knew he was better. He pulled her into a fierce hug, wrapping himself around her, muttering her name over and over again like he wasn’t sure if she was real. She could feel the blood soak through her shirt but she didn’t care. She clung to him like he was going to disappear. Like he was the only real thing left in the world. She inhaled the blood and grime and dirt and he whispered her name. She could have sworn she felt a fresh warm tear on his face. She leaned back and looked into thankful, golden eyes. He place a hand on the side of her head.

“Are you okay Kagome?”

She almost laughed. “Am _I_ okay? I should be asking you.”

“Keh,” he said fondly, running his fingers through her hair. “You saw to that. I’m fine now.”

“I was so scared for you. I was afraid you’d lose yourself to your demon side and pick a fight you couldn’t come back from.”

“No such thing,” he said, smirking, scratching her head softly with his nails. She didn’t care that they were probably covered in bits of dead demon; it felt magnificent. “How did you heal so fast?”

“The demons tried to fix me with the soup. They apparently wanted me in working order before delivering me to Senso.”

His fingers stopped their rhythmic scratching and a dark look came over his face. “I was never gonna let that happen.”

“I know. They thought he was going to help them get their forest back from humans. I almost felt bad for them. They have no idea how bad deforestation gets.”

“…You felt bad for them?”

“I _almost_ felt bad for them,” she said. “If I’d known what they did to you I wouldn’t have even dared.”

That answer seemed to mollify him and he pressed her head to his chest. “Well they aren’t comin back. We should probably rest here until morning. Smells like shit, but at least it’s secluded and warm.”

She nodded into his chest.

“Inuyasha?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we please find somewhere to bathe in the morning?”

He laughed softly and nodded. It seemed he was so tired he couldn’t even make a retort. Within seconds she heard his breathing slow to a nice, even rhythm. A few seconds more, and she joined him in restorative slumber.

—

They must have slept in, because by the time they woke, the sun was well into the sky and the cave wasn’t even cold. The dying fire must have kept it relatively warm until the sun took over, providing a gentle warmth. When they awoke, the light had improved, and she could see her half demon much more clearly. She took her thumb, licked it, and smudged one of the bloodstains on his face. While he was still covered in all sorts of crusted fluids and dirt, his underlying skin was clear. He grabbed her hand and kissed her without saying a word. His lips moved slowly against hers, and when her mouth parted, she could taste the iron of blood on his tongue and in his cheeks. He pulled back and looked at her, his eyes like gemstones in the sunlight, conveying so much love that she wasn’t sure if she was strong enough to look away.

Again, she was struck by how much older he really seemed. No longer was he an impetuous teenager. Sure, he was still capable of driving her nuts, but he’d spent less time running from his feelings and more time paying attention to hers. And he had certainly never been this affectionate.

One thing hadn’t changed. He was still better with his actions than with his words. And if his actions were anything to go by, he really, _really_ just wanted to stay there and kiss her for the rest of the day. But time was not a resource they had an abundance of.

He ran his nose along her jaw and kissed her again, languidly, taking his sweet time. It was that same, slow embrace that she felt like he stretched out as long as possible, almost as if to avoid something. She let him move over her, completely devour her mouth, until she had to stop and breath.

“Inuyasha?”

“Hm?” His mouth moved to her earlobe, and _dammit_ , he was using his teeth, moving the cartilage and skin between them. It was incredibly difficult to concentrate on anything but that, but she knew she had to.

“Do you— hnnn— do you know what day it is?” She inhaled quickly as she felt his teeth prick her earlobe.

“Nope,” he breathed into her ear.

“How about what—ahhh— what time it is?”

“Don’t care.”

She tried to calculate the date in her mind, counting the number of nights they’d spent there, but she felt like she was slowly losing her mind at his ministrations. She felt like she was being adored. It was a good feeling in and of itself, but coming from _him_ , it felt like ascension to another plane.

But Hiroshima was close, she knew it. The bomb was days away. They had no idea what Senso’s final plan was, nor where he was. They still hadn’t reached Kouga’s contact.

She took his face in her hands and gave him one final kiss before, with great effort, pushing his face back. He almost pouted.

“We have to figure out where we are and what time it is.”

“Why.”

“You _know_ why.”

He looked at her, suddenly deep in thought. It was as if whatever dreamy haze had taken over his mind was lifting, and reality was starting to settle in. His ears twitched, and he nodded, resigned.

“One last thing, though,” she said, and before he could respond, she attacked his face with kisses. Little quick pecks over his eyes and his nose and his lips and his forehead and his cheeks. Every bit of his face, even the parts still marred by dried blood. She didn’t care. She giggled softly and then went after his lips, drawing him in deeply for at least a minute, before pulling away. His expression was that of dumbfounded bliss.

“Now can we _please_ wash off and figure out where we are?”


	9. nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gold star to whoever can tell me what movie inspired the dream. :)

**NINE**

**_Presenting, The Great Taberume, the Eater of Dreams!_ **

_Ever have a dream you just can’t shake? Ever have a recurring nightmare about your gal with another guy? Look no further! The Great Taberume is here to help!_

Kagome and Inuyasha looked at the brick storefront apprehensively. They’d spent most of the day getting here— first grabbing their abandoned supplies, firerat, and Tetsusaiga, washing off in a local stream. Then Kagome washed their clothes. He was so gentle with her, offering to help her with the laundry, stand guard while she bathed. It was as if he was trying to make up for what she saw the night before. But he had to know— surely he had to know— she had not been truly afraid. She knew he would not hurt her. What had pained her most was how hurt he had been. Now he was back to his strong, spry self. It seemed like a miracle.

They’d rushed to Kure once their day clothes dried and they changed. Kagome had lost her shoes at some point, so Inuyasha carried her, even when they walked on the ground. He’d insisted in his usual charming manner when she tried to protest. _“Just get on my back, dammit.”_

Now they were at the edge of town, staring at a wooden sign announcing the demon that they had been looking for, which was the strangest thing she’d seen in a while. It was almost as if he was proclaiming that he was a demon to the whole world. She supposed there was some sort of story behind it. After all, it appeared to just be a simple storefront.

“Maybe he has some shoes?”

Inuyasha snorted. “I got no problem carrying you, Kagome.”

“Yeah, but what if you have to put me down?”

“Why would I need to put you down?”

“Well people aren’t usually carried in stores.”

“Keh. I stopped caring a long time ago what people were used to.”

She tweaked his ear and it twitched in response. “It’s not about that. We don’t want to scare off our contact.”

He was quiet for a moment, then adjusted his hold on her to hold her thighs even tighter.

“Nope.”

She sighed. She wasn’t going to win this one.

“Fine.”

When Inuyasha turned the knob, the door opened inward with the ringing of bells; not like an alarm, but like pleasant tinkling wind chimes. Inside the store was a treasure trove of objects and oddities. At first, Kagome thought perhaps it was a magic shop, but behind the cutesy tricks were some serious occult objects. A hand of glory sat over a fireplace filled with potent herbs used in various potions. Then there were the random objects: a single silver fork, plants of interesting colors and sizes, puzzles, a broken guitar, a unicycle, what appeared to be a dog toy. Some things were priced and some were not. She looked down to her left and saw a short bedside-style cabinet with a few small skulls on top. She squeaked and clutched onto her half demon.

“What?”

“This place is so creepy…”

She could almost hear him roll his eyes. “Nothing in here is scarier than me. You got nothin to be afraid of.”

She nodded. She knew that, of course she knew that, but it still didn’t sit well with her. There had to be some purpose for all of the strange and mysterious objects, and whatever it was, she didn’t sense anything good.

“So the guy that owns the store is the dream eater? I can’t remember; did Kouga mention anything else about him, like what he might look like?”

Inuyasha shook his head. From the back of the store, through an open doorway with small white beads hanging down on strings, came a man that was so obviously the owner that it was laughable. He was tall and pale, dressed in a sleek black coat, and his grey hair was slicked back with what Kagome considered too much hair gel. Then there were his eyes— deep set, dark, like twin pits— all framed by a grey, narrow face with no eyebrows. Around his neck laid a golden chain with some sort of oval-shaped locket. He approached them, his long fingers and sharp nails running along the counter of oddities as he walked. Somewhere in the store a cuckoo clock chirped.

“Hello. I am Taberume” he said, his voice deep but airy, as if the slightest breeze would blow it away. He looked at Inuyasha’s ears, staring at them for a second longer than necessary, which Kagome did not like one bit. She grasped onto Inuyasha’s uniform jacket tighter.

Full demon Inuyasha did not scare her, but this demon, this _thing_ , definitely did.

After looking at Inuyasha’s face, then giving Kagome an acknowledging glance, he continued. “I take it you are the half demon Commander Okami spoke of?”

“Yeah,” Inuyasha answered, gripping Kagome’s legs tighter. He didn’t like the demon either.

“I was not informed you would be bringing a guest,” he said, his voice a dark song, lilting. “Can she be trusted?”

“Anything you say to me, you can say to the both of us,” Inuyasha said.

“… She has no shoes.”

“No.”

The demon stared at her feet for a moment, then his eyes connected with hers. She tried to look away but strangely, somehow, couldn’t. Then he blinked— had he not blinked this whole time?— and some sort of spell had been broken, and she looked off at the snowshoes on the wall.

“She is a priestess.”

She felt Inuyasha tense underneath her, as if preparing to run.

“Yeah, and…?” he said, aggravation growing.

“You misunderstand. Please, follow me to the back of the store and we can discuss things further. Perhaps we have some shoes that may fit her feet.”

The man turned, beckoned them with a thin hand, and disappeared behind the white beads.

“Kagome, I don’t like this guy.”

_Join the club._ “Me neither, but we have to meet with him, don’t we? To find Senso?”

“We could find another way, another contact.”

“Not in time. We’re running out of time as it is.”

He growled in frustration. “Fine. But the second this goes south, we’re running. We lost your bow and arrow but I still have Tetsusaiga and I can fend him off if I need to. Actually, maybe it would be safer if you just waited outside…”

Not this again. He had to know she wasn’t one to wait on the sidelines. She pinched his arm and he flinched. “You do know I’m not letting you go anywhere without me.”

“Dammit, Kagome!”

“Either you and I do this together, or I’ll find a way to go in alone.”

That seemed to shut him up. He growled again and walked them behind the counter to the doorway towards the back. Kagome took note of a few things in the store just in case— a bow and a quiver of arrows were sitting in the front left corner of the store, and a hunting knife sat on a chair cushion. If push came to shove, she wasn’t going to be useless. She couldn’t let what happened with the hare demons happen again.

As they passed through the beads, Kagome noticed something odd about them. Their shapes were not circles, but flatter with bumps. Some were more discolored than others. It took her passing through the ribbons of beads to the other side to realize—

Those were not beads. They were tiny bones.

—

The back of the shop was like a different world. Instead of dust and clutter, there was spotlessness and sterility. The décor was spartan— almost nothing hung on the walls, nothing as macabre as bones adorned any doorways. The building was bigger than it looked, too. No one would have suspected that it went as far back as it did from just seeing the front. It was yet another odd feature of the place, and both she and Inuyasha were becoming more and more uncomfortable with every step. At least the front of the store had personality. This was like a blank canvas. Taberume continued to beckon them forth, leading them past a few doors to one on the left at the end of the hall. It opened into what appeared to be a sort of conference room, complete with a square wooden table and sturdy chairs. It was only slightly more inviting than where they had come from— at least here there was a bookshelf with books. Very old books, but books nonetheless. The strange man then gestured towards the chairs, but Inuyasha made no move to sit down.

“This aint a social visit.”

“And this is not a social setting,” said Taberume. “We’re here to talk business. I have something you want, and I would like to know what you have to offer in return. I take it you know what I am.”

“A fucking creep if you ask me,” said Inuyasha, still not sitting down, still not releasing her. “Were those human bones?”

_“Inuyasha!”_ God, she loved him, but it was just like him to piss off the one man that had the information they needed. Still, she felt sympathetic with his outburst. The guy _was_ a creep, and those bones were deeply unsettling.

One of Taberume’s dark eyes twitched. “Okami was right. You do have a mouth. Dangerous thing for a _half_ demon to have.”

She didn’t think it was possible for him to hold her any tighter but he did. It was almost painful, but she knew it was just fear.

“He is a half demon, and he has every right to say what he wants,” she said, feeling a bit defensive. “Anyway, we know you’ve been looking for a pure dream.”

“Yes,” he nearly purred, his eyes flicking between hers and Inuyasha’s no doubt angry ones. “I have been looking for someone for quite some time to help me with this problem. Perhaps you will be able to assist me in this quest.”

“No,” spat Inuyasha. “You aren’t touching her. You can have something else.”

“I do not need to touch her, half demon,” said Taberume, frozen in a pensive posture. “I simply need to assess her dreams. If they are pure, then I may eat one as payment for the information I can provide. If they are not…” he drifted off, almost as if lost in thought for a moment. “Well, I’m sure we can make some sort of arrangement. I am getting tired of being constantly under surveillance by your _friends_.”

“Why do you need a pure dream?” Kagome asked.

“Because it is all that will allow me to sleep,” he said. “You see my appearance, no? I am cursed. I am sustained by others’ dreams. Any dream will feed me, but only pure dreams will help me sleep, and dreams are _rarely_ pure. So,I am simply fed, not satisfied. Do you know what it is like, not to have sleep?”

They both stayed quiet. They both knew what it was like. But it was still something she had not expected this creepy demon to say. It made sense; insomnia was a terrible, terrible thing to live through. She’d lived it only for a week or so, after being unable to cross back through the well, and it felt like a mental prison with no exit. It was a place she never, ever wanted to be again.

“Very well then. So you understand why I am making this request.”

“How would it work?” asked Kagome.

“It’s very simple. I would give you something to make you dream, and I would watch the dream with this,” he held up his locket. “If it is pure, this will detect it, and I shall consume it.”

“What is that process like?”

“Simple, I assure you. I have no need to touch you or harm you. Touching your hand _would_ make it go faster—” Taberume paused as Inuyasha started to growl loudly “— but I take it that will not be an option.”

“ _No_ ,” Inuyasha said firmly.

“Very well, then, are we in agreement?”

She really, really wished they could just pause for a moment and talk in private, but there wasn’t a way to do that without Taberume overhearing; he was a demon, so it was likely his hearing was better than most, even if he wasn’t a dog demon. She thought about what the cost would really be— it was nothing, right? Just giving up a dream? She’d had some strange dreams lately, but those were being manipulated by Senso, who had no idea where she was, and had no reason to expect she’d be in an induced sleep in the mid afternoon. She felt relatively certain her dreams were safe from him for the time being. Where was the harm?

“Inuyasha?” she asked tentatively.

“Thinking,” he responded.

“Don’t strain yourself,” added Taberume. Inuyasha growled again. Kagome was getting really sick of the whole ‘lets pick on the half demon’ shtick.

“Hey! You want me to cooperate, you lay off him. And get me some shoes while you’re at it.”

“Does this mean you agree?”

“Kagome…” Inuyasha whispered harshly. She knew that tone. He was worried, deeply worried, but he knew it was their only option. It was his way of protesting when the decision was already made.

“Y-yes,” she said, trying to sound more certain than she actually was. “But on one condition.”

“Pray tell.”

“Inuyasha is there the whole time.”

“Really?” Taberume asked, amused. “You want this half demon privy to your dreams? He’ll be able to see them too, you know. Or at least hear them.”

She gripped Inuyasha tight, hoping to convey to him the feeling behind her next words. “I trust him with everything.” He responded with a shaky exhale. He was not liking this one. Bit.

Taberume stared at them with a bemused smirk. She’d seen the look before on condescending demons and disparaging humans alike. No one understood how a priestess and a half demon could have a relationship like theirs. But no one else understood the underlying truth— that they were made for each other— except the two of them. And in the end, that was okay. Their relationship wasn’t for anyone else’s judgement or approval. It was for them.

“Very well, then,” said Taberume. “I will get you shoes and take you to the meditation room.” He left the room without summoning them to follow, presumably to get shoes, leaving the two of them alone, Inuyasha still carrying her on his back.

“Kagome,” he breathed. “This starts to go south, I don’t care what information he’s got. I’m getting you out of here.”

“It’ll be fine, Inuyasha.”

She really, really hoped that was true.

—

They were in a very clinical room. She laid down on what resembled a gurney, only a bit lower to the ground. Cold metal brushed against the backs of her calves and chilled her back through her shirt. The demon had found her some simple white shoes, laced and far more comfortable than Aomame’s mary janes had been. On the left sat Taberume, dark and tragic, and on the right sat Inuyasha, his hand wrapped in hers and his eyes never leaving her face. It was as if he was searching for something, possibly a crack in her resolve. But this was too important. He wasn’t going to find one. He couldn’t. No matter how scared she was.

“We have to do this Inuyasha,” she said, but his face did not change.

“How long?” he asked, staring at Kagome but clearly directing the question at Taberume.

“Shouldn’t take more than half an hour for the entire procedure.”

“Procedure?!”

“Calm down, half demon. I will keep my promise. I will not touch her. To consume a dream is something more intangible. It takes place in the subconscious. All she must do is look into the locket and count backwards from ten.”

Kagome frowned. Seriously? Like hypnotism? “That’s it?”

Taberume ignored her. “Whenever you are ready.”

She nodded. She only needed one more thing to be ready.

Without warning, she sat up and kissed Inuyasha solidly on the lips. She felt him tense, then relax almost immediately as he kissed her back, hand coming up to her neck, attempting to deepen it. She was half tempted to let him, to say “screw it” and just make out with Inuyasha instead. She couldn’t lose her nerve, though. Not now. So she leaned back, gave him one last peck, and then laid down, eyes on Taberume. The dream eater looked mildly disgusted.

“Ready,” she said.

“Very well then.” Taberume held the locket in front of him, muttered something, and with a click, it opened.She started counting.

_Ten._

Inside were two mirrors, reflecting into one another.

_Nine._

Somehow they created an image that echoed itself, over and over again.

_Eight._

The images multiplied, deeper and deeper, further into the distance, until—

_Seven._

It was so far away that she could barely see—

—

When she opened her eyes, it was pure celebration.

At the head of the room was a bandstand with men on instruments, hair slicked back, dressed to the nines. Swing music flooded the place. Everywhere she looked, people were dancing in pairs to the joyous music, men were twirling their partners and women were giggling into their champagne. Everyone was dressed like a 1940s movie star. Cameras flashed, blinding lights peppering the steady glow of the lanterns above. It was hot, lively, nearly raucous at times, and the air was filled with the smell of cigar smoke.

She could see herself, too. She was outside of her own body.

She wore heels, and a ruby red dress, coming up to just below her knee. The sweetheart neckline, fitted sleeves and narrow waist of the dress contrasted with the fullness of the swinging skirt. Her bangs were pinned back, and her hair fell into smooth, silky waves that curled as they cascaded just past her shoulders. She looked so grown up, in that way that 21-year-olds always insisted they were, but never really felt. She was standing in the middle of the ballroom, lit from above as if under a spotlight, and around her swirled the tipsy masses. All but one man, standing in front of her, among all these humans, but in his half-demon form. Inuyasha.

He was dressed in his military finest, or what she supposed was his military finest, and his short silver hair was combed perfectly without a hair out of place. He offered her his hand, bowing slightly, but his eyes never left hers. His face was flushed with apprehension. He was asking her to dance. Her hand went up to his almost immediately, about to make contact when she noticed.

Something was amiss.

The room was loud, but the camera flashes were not heralded by the shutters clicking. Something was off. It was like they were making the sounds of gunshots. She turned to look around her at the men doubled over with laughter, but the longer she stared, the more she started to notice the blood leaking from their guts and trickling down their foreheads. Women crying with mirth were leaking blood from their eyes instead of tears, their perfectly painted faces marred with rivulets of red. As people danced, shell casings and un-triggered grenades bounced at their feet, being kicked back and forth by the unwitting revelers. Even the music began to sound warped, distorted, the trumpet off-key on a long-held note. Someone somewhere shouted her name. She looked back at Inuyasha.

He was not Inuyasha anymore.

His eyes— his beautiful eyes— had begun to sink into their sockets, the gold decaying into black. She stepped back in fear, only to be caught by someone else’s arms. It was Kouga, and when she turned to face him, his eyes were also receding into the back of his head. She wrenched herself from his grip and ran towards the exit, but it kept moving further away as more and more people began to crowd around her.

_“Kagome, what’s wrong?”_

_“Kagome, aren’t you having fun?”_

_“Kagome!”_

All around her were her friends from both the feudal era and the 21st century, pleading with her to enjoy herself, to lighten up. They were packing in so tight she had nowhere to go. No place to move. She fell into a crouching position, covering her head as they shouted her name from above. She tried to scream, the sound tearing through her throat, but nothing would come out. Something was stopping her. All she wanted to do was scream, but her voice was broken.

She felt someone in the crowd tug at her arm and yank hard. She tried pulling back, but their grip was firm. She looked up.

It was the priestess, Makshi, and her one bright eye.

She stood in her robes, hair pinned back, surrounded in red light, and began to pull Kagome through the elated, demented crowd. Kagome kicked and flailed against the girl’s grasp, shouting silently as her heels dragged across the wooden floor, but it was no use. Makshi was too strong, and she was not stopping.

_Please don’t take me,_ she begged in her mind, _Please, leave me alone._

_To be devoured?_ Answered a voice she had never heard before. A pleasant voice of a girl not much younger than herself, one that did not sound as if it had ever spoken aloud before. _No. That is not your destiny._

_Who—?_

She felt her arm twist out of socket, cried out in pain, and then the lights fell to darkness.


	10. ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We're coming to the endgame now. There's this chapter, then one more, then the epilogue, then the "after credits" scene. :)   
> Buckle up!

**TEN**

She didn’t know what she was expecting when she awoke, but it certainly was not what she found waiting for her on the other side of her dream. The first was an overwhelming sensation of pain in her right shoulder. It felt like it was out of place; like something had been wrenched from its socket. She groaned and opened her eyes, hoping that what she saw would be a pair of gorgeous golden eyes.

It was not.

She was laying on some cold ground, staring up at a stone ceiling. The walls, too, were a gray slate-type of carved rock; like a cave, but certainly man-made. She rolled onto her side to see where the exit to the room was, and she found it— a narrow door made of steel bars with only small gaps between them, a deadbolt lock installed on the handle. Wherever she was, she was not leaving anytime soon.

_Don’t cry, don’t cry._

This was unreal. This was impossible. After everything she and Inuyasha had been through, after traveling across the country, making sacrifices, getting hurt, doing everything they could to stay together, they were _still_ torn apart. Did something or someone really not want them together? She refused to believe it was fate that would keep them apart— if this journey had showed her anything, it was how much they needed each other— but every little setback seemed to be chipping away at her resolve.

God, she loved him. She missed him. Being back with him was like surfacing from a deep ocean, one where she’d held her breath for far too long. In that way, as clichéd as she knew it sounded, he was like air. Without him in her life, she merely survived, holding her breath. She did not live. And she couldn’t go back to surviving now, not knowing what she knew.

She wasn’t sure how long she was left alone with her thoughts—it could have been minutes, it could have been hours— but eventually, she heard someone approach the door. She scrambled back against the wall. She had nothing to fight with, and only one functioning arm, but she would be damned if someone got the jump on her.

“Kagome.” It was a deep male voice. In the pit of her stomach, she recognized it. “I do hope you are awake. I also suggest that you do not attack me in your current state; I mean you no harm, I assure you.”

“Coulda fooled me,” said Kagome.

“I promise.”

“You can stick your promises right up your—!”

“Dear me, you have been spending too much time with that half demon,” said the man she recognized as Senso. He unlocked the door and stepped into the room. He looked exactly as he did in her dreams, only with more detail in person: a crisp white uniform with epaulets on the shoulders, a matching cap, and shined shoes. His left eye was a small, bright light, giving the room a dimly lit glow. His posture was uncomfortable in the cramped room. “Good thing we were able to separate you two; I’m afraid he was far too much of a distraction for what must occur.”

“What did you do to him?!” she yelled.

“Me? Nothing. Makshi, well, let’s just say chances are he’s a bit… pinned down at the moment.”

_Pinned down? What…_

“What do you mean?”

“Nevermind that, Kagome. He is alive; I had a feeling you’d be impossible to handle if he was anything but, at least for now. But he won’t be interfering in the plan moving forward.”

“What ‘plan moving forward’?”

“You ask a lot of questions for a girl that’s so smart,” he said, taking a step towards her. She backed further towards the corner of the room and he sighed. “I’m not here to hurt you, Kagome.”

“You’re going to have to forgive me if I don’t believe you based on literally _everything_ that’s happened.”

“The goal has never been to hurt you. It has been to acquire you. Now here,” he said, gesturing to her injured right shoulder that she was clutching protectively with her left hand. “Let me fix that for you.”

“No.”

He sighed. “You should, at the very least, accept that I’d like you in working condition to do my bidding.”

She glared at him. It did make a sort of sense. He’d want her to be functional if he was going to use her. Plus, if she had any chance of escape, it would be a lot easier with two working arms.

“…Fine.”

He nodded and stepped toward her. The light from his eye made her feel odd, as if in a spotlight. With gloved hands, he pressed one hand on her clavicle and one behind her shoulder. He was so close she could smell his breath; it was the scent of ashes and dust.

“On the count of three. One, two—”

_CRACK._

“AH!” she screamed as she felt the bone click back into place, a sharp pain surging through her. It left behind a lingering ache, but no longer felt removed. Senso stepped back to give her some room.

“Move it around a bit. There, better now?”

She said nothing as she rotated her shoulder slowly. It hurt, but it felt like it would work again. She resumed glaring at him.

“Tell me where we are.”

“Just outside of Hiroshima. Should be well within the bomb’s radius, if the calculations Oppenheimer sent me were correct.”

“ _Within_ the bomb’s radius?”

“Yes. If we are to harness its power then we must. Don’t worry about the bomb, priestess. You are with myself and Makshi now; together, we will save this world.”

She had known he was delusional, but saying he would be the savior of the world was just narcissistic. Besides, what did he want? The death of everyone she loved. All humans without spiritual power. Which would, in turn, cause all demons to die. Either way, no one was spared. She shook her head. “You and I have very different ideas of a saved world.”

He gave her a small, bemused smile.

“You are from the future, yes? Far enough to where you know how this war plays out?”

Kagome frowned and did not answer. She knew he’d already figured it out.

“Play your cards close to your chest then,” he said, shrugging. He grasped his hands behind him in military fashion, but something played across his face, his features expressing irritation for the first time. “I want you to ponder something. What kind of world is it you live in? Is it a world where nature is bountiful, where scarcity is banished, where spiritual energy is accepted and integrated into the flow of the earth and its souls? Or is it the opposite? Is it a cesspool, a materialistic, industrial propagation of today, where oceans send waves of plastic onto shores and forests burn until they’re down to their last tree? Can you answer that, priestess?”

Kagome tried to comprehend what he was saying, but she was having trouble focusing on anything but his shining eye. That beacon of demonic energy that was close, so close, almost as if it was reaching out to her and attempting to merge with her. That eye signaled the end of the world if it joined with her. She could not let it happen.

“You don’t get to wage war and call it a peace,” she whispered.

“Why not? That’s what humans do.”

“Then you admit it. Your actions are just like those you hate,” she said. “You’re playing at being God, but you’re just another being on this earth. Just like everybody else. You’re nothing special. You don’t get to say who has the right to live and die. If you cared about the world like you said you did, you would know that.”

Something in her statement had sent him right over the edge. He snapped, suddenly charged Kagome, and before she could summon any resistance, he grabbed her throat with both of his hands. He lifted her off the ground as she flailed helplessly against his grip. She tried clawing at his forearms but his hold was too strong, and scratching his skin was like scratching a diamond— absolutely useless.

“I have tried to be kind, priestess,” he said, his voice deepening, his demonic energy flaring in his eye. He was squeezing so tightly that it confused her as well as pained her— did he want her alive or not?The world darkened around the edges as the lack of oxygen started to affect her vision. “I have tried to be patient. I even left your half demon alive. But I warn you. If you try me, his blood will be on your hands. Literally. You don’t want me to make you do that, do you?”

She shook her head fervently, her eyes wide.

_Please, no. Inuyasha. No. You can’t make me. I can’t breath. I will never hurt him. Let me breathe. I can’t—_

He let go and she dropped to her knees on the cold hard floor, holding herself up by her uninjured arm. Deep, gasping breaths rushed out of her mouth as her lungs greedily took in the air. _His blood will be on your hands._ She was stuck. Absolutely stuck. She’d rather die than be the cause of Inuyasha’s demise. She was going nowhere.

“Careful, priestess,” he said, his voice sounding almost echoed by dozens more. “I don’t make threats lightly.”

With that he spun on his heel, returned his hands to their position grasped behind his back, and exited the room. The door slammed shut with finality. Tears swelled on her lashline for what she felt like was the hundredth time in a week. But this time, Inuyasha was not there to wipe them away, so they fell uselessly, unfettered, onto the ground.

—

She stared at the wall for what felt like days, but she knew it must only have been hours, because she would have died of starvation or thirst had it actually been that long. The silence of the room made the pounding in her head louder, the throbbing of her shoulder harder, and the muscles in her neck stiffer. There was nothing to distract her from her pain or her thoughts. This, she decided, was hell. She thought of situations she’d seen like this in movies— how people survived, how people escaped, but they all seemed to have one common denominator— the person imprisoned was never alone. There were always other prisoners. But in the hours she’d been there, she was certain there was no one else. She’d even tried to seek out some form of life spiritually and found nothing. Just cold, hard rock.

Again she asked herself how this could have happened. How things could have gone so wrong. She was put to sleep and though her dream started out well enough, things got twisted. Could Taberume have betrayed her and changed the dream? Maybe, but she didn’t think he would. He wanted a pure dream so he could sleep. And Inuyasha would have been right there, so he would have stopped any funny business on the outside. It had to be something to do with Makshi’s spiritual power. After all, she was the one that had dragged Kagome out of the dream in the first place, likely under orders from Senso. Perhaps he was the one that spoiled the dream. It would make sense; there was no doubt he was powerful enough. He had taken a beautiful reverie and twisted it into a nightmare. Easy to explain, then, how she was stolen spiritually. But physically, how did she get there? What had happened?

There was one thing that Senso had said that had deeply unsettled her, and that was that Inuyasha was ‘pinned down’. She couldn’t think of what that might mean, unless he was referring to the time Inuyasha was pinned to the tree for 50 years. But only a priestess could do that, and Kagome had been presumably unconscious at the time. Unless…

Unless, of course, Makshi was good with a bow and arrow.

The thought of him being pinned with an arrow again filled her with rage, but there was nothing she could do. He was far away, and she’d have to physically remove the arrow in order to free him. Besides, Kure was far enough from Hiroshima where he should be safe. So, in that sense, she would have accomplished her mission— he would not die in Hiroshima. Still, she had hoped that she’d be able to enjoy his second lease on life _with_ him.

She buried her face in her hands.

“Why?” she asked herself, softly. Her voice sounded so loud, even as a whisper, in the dark and open room. At first, there was no answer.

Then, she heard footsteps.

They were not the same footsteps as Senso’s. They were soft, light. She heard the lock click and she pressed back against the wall again, unsure of what was to come next. The door shut and from the dim light in the girl’s right eye she could see her visitor was none other than her kidnapper. The priestess, Makshi. Her wild hair was pinned back against the side of her head but was otherwise free. More than ever, Kagome could feel her energy. It was hard to describe— a sort of synesthesia— but she _felt_ like the color red. Her energy, passion and anger, but not in an evil sort of way. In a powerful sort of way. It was the essence of her spiritual energy, and it was dazzling to be in the presence of this close.

Makshi approached her and Kagome more than ever wanted to fade into the wall. This girl was easily capable of overpowering her, no matter what she tried. Demons she knew how to fight against, but this girl? She was a force of nature. Kagome wondered for a moment why she hadn’t said anything, but then remembered that Sesshomaru had said something about the girl being deaf.

That made sense. It explained why, in her dream, the girl’s voice sounded as if it were rarely used. Makshi kneeled down in front of Kagome, her bright eye illuminating Kagome’s face. She stared intently, her dark brown eye focusing on Kagome’s light blues.

“I…I’m Kagome,” Kagome said, hoping the girl could read lips. Makshi nodded. She knew this already. “You’re Makshi.”

The girl nodded again and continued to stare. Kagome wondered, just for a split second, if maybe the girl could tell her exactly what had happened to Inuyasha. She seemed benevolent enough kneeling there. Kagome had to risk it.

“Do you know… is Inuyasha alright?”

The girl smiled a bit and nodded. She made a gesture as if shooting an arrow. Kagome gasped, praying it wasn’t what she thought it was, but then Makshi continued. She then placed up one finger to her mouth as if to say something was a secret, then acted out pulling something straight out. Kagome frowned.

“You… you shot Inuyasha and then…” she continued as Makshi enthusiastically continued to nod. “… and then in secret you… pulled the arrow out?”

Makshi gave her a big smile. Kagome smiled right back.

“Makshi, I— thank you. How— why?”

Makshi frowned and then pointed to her bright eye. She then shook her head as a dark look entered her brown eye.

“He did that to you like he wants to do that to me. You wanted no part of it. Is that why you attacked us and destroyed that village? He was controlling you.”

Makshi looked a bit shaken at the mention of the village, and Kagome instantly felt bad. She knew what it was like to have someone try and act through you to hurt others. She never wanted to be used that way again.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to remind you. It’s just nice to know you’re on our side when he’s not actively controlling you.” Makshi gave her a small, reassuring twitch in the corner of her mouth.

“So I think we both know whatever Senso is planning is bad…” Kagome started, giving Makshi time to react. The girl nodded. “We need to take him out before he does anything.” Makshi agreed. “Do you have a plan?”

Makshi looked behind her to make sure no one was at the door. She then turned back around and gestured to her bright eye. She pointed to Kagome’s left eye, as if to make a connection between the two. Then she made an X with her arms.

“You don’t… want me to have the other eye,” Kagome said, almost following. Makshi made another emphatic X with her arms.

“No. Stop. That has to stop… we have to stop him before I get the eye.”

Makshi wrinkled her nose held her thumb and forefinger close, as if about to pinch something.

“I’m close.”

Makshi nodded. She placed a warm finger underneath Kagome’s left eye, then pretended to almost place something in it. But she stopped right before getting too close, then made the X sign again.

“You want us to stop him… right before he gives me the eye?”

Makshi smiled and clapped her hands together softly.

“That makes sense… he’ll be close and he’ll be focused on me so you can sneak up behind him and strike him, and then when he turns to fight you, I can help! It’ll be two against one!”

Makshi grinned and placed her hands over Kagome’s. She put their hands together as if in some sort of prayer. How different this girl had turned out to be. In that moment, Kagome couldn’t help but admire the her strength and tenacity. Not only to survive under the control of a war-mongering demon, but to show Kagome kindness in the midst of it. To invite her in on her plot to kill her captor, to reassure her Inuyasha was ok. Instinctively, Kagome pulled the girl into a hug and Makshi hugged her back.

“Thank you, Makshi.” Kagome whispered. She didn’t know if the girl could understand the words, but she knew she understood the feeling.

They leaned back, and with a parting thumbs up, Makshi left the room. Regardless of what happened next, at least they had a plan. That was all Kagome could have asked for.

She did wonder, though, what had happened to Inuyasha after he had been released. She could only hope he had run as far away from Hiroshima as possible, but she had a feeling he was closer to the city than ever. For a moment she held on to the thought that, just maybe, he wouldn’t do something stupid like come after her on his own. Then again, this was Inuyasha. She loved him more than life, but he tended to act with his heart and not his head.

The day was coming soon. She knew it. It had to be what, less than 48 hours? Or less than 24 hours? Time felt like it had simultaneously stopped and become infinite in her prison. At some point, someone slipped in some food and water. It looked like military rations— rice and barley, fish and pickled vegetables stored in a tin. She figured Senso wouldn’t try to poison her since he had to use her somehow, so she ate it. She’d need all of her strength if she was going to fight back. She laid down afterward, biding her time, trying hard to get some form of rest before she was summoned. When sleep wouldn’t come, she let her mind drift, and imagined being locked protectively in a certain half demon’s strong arms.


	11. eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a ride.   
> This is the last official chapter; there is an epilogue and an "after credits" scene as a little bonus, but this is where the action really wraps up. I truly hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed dreaming it up and crafting it.

**ELEVEN**

She knew it was time because she could feel him.

He wasn’t in the room, but Senso’s demonic power flooded the area like a tidal wave, covering the ground in a dark red aura. Something had happened, maybe he had performed a ritual, because he was ten times more powerful than he had been when he had paid her a visit earlier in her captivity. She shuddered to think what he could have done, hoping Makshi was ok. His boots thudded louder and louder on the ground until they finally stopped, and the door was thrown open. A second later, white miko robes were dropped just inside the door.

“It is time, priestess. Change,” said Senso from outside. “I’ll wait.”

Kagome rolled her eyes. _What a gentleman_.

Once changed, he lead her down a series of dimly lit concrete corridors. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but this wasn’t it. Maybe guards at every corner, something more ornate, more garish? But then, when she thought about it, it did make sense. It felt like a bunker. Perfect for outlasting a war.

They eventually reached a wide concrete room with dozens of blinding fluorescent lights, making everything in look stark and harsh. That wasn’t really a problem, though, because it would have looked that way to begin with. The floor was littered with metal tables and concrete blocks, with different plastics and wires and attachments linked to each other like spider webs. Occasionally something crackled with electricity. What was strangest, though, is that Kagome could not see anything overtly spiritual going on here. It was simply electronics and science.

“I… I thought you didn’t like industrialization.”

The statement left her mouth before she could stop it. She stopped in her tracks, immediately fearing the man would turn around and attack her, but he simply stopped and spoke slightly over his shoulder.

“Everything here is powered by sunlight and spiritual energy. No waste. No pollution. As it should be.”

So _that’s_ where the spiritual energy came into play. It was being channeled into mechanical and electrical power? But someone would have to generate that power, wouldn’t they? At the time it was running on its own.

“How…”

“Battery,” he said. “The wires travel throughout the underground of the city and further.”

Sure enough, she could see where some of the wires entered the walls. It was incredible just how many of them there were, twisted over one another, connecting this to that, transmitting the intagible power of destruction. She couldn’t even begin to comprehend how it all worked. She wondered who built it.

They traveled down a narrow walkway in between concrete slabs and running batteries and motors until they reached the center of the room. There were two stone seats, facing one another, about five meters apart. They had metal cuffs on the arms that appeared to be linked to the electric tangle all around them.

Kagome’s heart leapt into her throat, suddenly feeling as though it were a skipping record. So that’s what all of this was about. He wanted two priestesses with both demonic and spiritual energy, using their combined power to charge whatever this mess of wires was for. He wanted her for clean energy. She was a human battery. For some kind of killing machine.

“I don’t want to…” she said, backing away. She knew she had nowhere to run, and she knew she couldn’t run for Inuyasha’s sake, but it was nearly instinctive at this point. She saw the chair. It looked like she was going to be electrocuted to death. It was a normal reaction. She took one backwards step when Senso spun on his heel, grabbed her wrist hard and his energy flared. _Shit_ that hurt. She almost thought she heard something crack.

“What you want is immaterial,” he hissed.

“You’re hurting me,” she said, tugging her wrist back towards herself. He released it and she cradled it to her chest.

His lips pressed into a thin line, then he turned around. His non-bright eye had been twitching— he was barely restraining himself now. He was on an edge, as if the slightest infraction would overwhelm him to the point of impulsive destruction, and his power was so massive that it felt like it had grown exponentially. What had changed? Had he maybe charged himself up with the battery? What was driving his demonic energy to this point?

Perhaps it was the anticipation alone.

It was then that she felt Makshi enter the room. The girl was dark and frail, but walked with a determination and strength Kagome could only hope she herself was able to muster. She turned and watched the girl, head down, make her way towards them. Senso stood still on the outside, but inside, Kagome could feel the crackling anger, like heat thrown from a fire.

“My priestesses,” he said once Makshi joined them in the center of the room. “Thank you for joining me.”

_Like we had a choice, asshole!_

Since saving the Feudal world, Kagome had come to recognize the “evil guy speech”. It usually started out with a blustering about some great invention, some intricate plan, and how it would do this, or that, and kill this person or that person. It was all very rehearsed, and once the idiot bad guy was done announcing his dastardly plot, it would essentially give the hero time enough to realize how to foil it. So, Kagome waited for the man to make his speech. This was the perfect time, he had a captive audience, and there was really nothing more for him to do before setting into motion whatever plan was going to happen.

But the longer she waited, it seemed Senso wasn’t going to do that. He pushed Kagome down onto the concrete and unceremoniously slapped the manacles shut onto her wrists. They were tight and metallic, the kind that would hurt immensely if she tried to get out of them. She’d probably have to break her hand to do so. Maybe she could if she had to, but she and Makshi still had a plan to get out of this, right?

Right?

She eyed the girl nervously as Senso headed towards her. He pushed her into the seat opposite Kagome’s and locked her in the same way, wrists held tight. The two girls shared panicked looks.

It occurred to her that their plan had just assumed that Senso would be so focused on Kagome that he wouldn’t be thinking about where Makshi was. He would assume he had everything under control. But if they were both locked into this at the same time, there was no way one could distract him while the other attacked. It was likely that Makshi had never seen this room, and therefore wouldn’t have known. Kagome felt her hope collapse. They hadn’t had a chance to come up with some sort of backup plan.

“You must think I’m very foolish, girls,” he said darkly. “To assume that I was too proud to fear you.”

Senso turned to face Makshi, even his posture demonstrating his rage, his fists clenched and his shoulders raised.

“I had thought that your deafness was a gift, Makshi, that I would have someone subordinate that could not betray me. But I never trust blindly,” he said and Kagome could tell he was pointing to his eye. “I have always, _always_ been with you my dear. Surely you must know that the eye is an extension of myself. How else could it have the demonic energy that plays so excellently with your spiritual energy?

“And you,” he said, turning to Kagome. His eye was burning brightly. “You really think I didn’t take precautions to make sure the half demon was out of the way? That when I discovered Makshi’s betrayal, I would simply let her free him without any consequences?”

_No. No. No no no no._

“What have you done?” Kagome asked in a whisper, so scared that she hardly recognized her own voice.

Senso grinned.

“ _What have you done?!”_ she shouted. No. Inuyasha was okay, he was always ok, he was going to make it out of Hiroshima and stay healthy and safe and alive because, god dammit, she had done everything— _everything_ — to try and save him. Her mind raced with a million different scenarios, her tired body ached at each of them. Who had attacked him? Who had hurt him? She thrashed against the manacles, or at least tried to, but Senso merely bent down and grabbed her two kicking legs, shoving them into two more metallic restraints that she had not known were there.

“Your half demon is likely hanging on for his dear life thanks to your collusion,” he said, turning away from her. She felt as if she had been doused in cold water. It was all because of her. Because she had planned an escape with Makshi.

She bit her cheek in an effort to bring herself out of her anxious spiral. “I’m not doing _anything_ for you if he’s hurt.”

“Well how about this? You do this for me, or I will personally see to it that he is dead.”

She felt the blood drain from her face.

“You forget, Kagome Higurashi, that I _am_ war. I have not been speaking in riddles; I have no time for them. I am Ares, I am Skanda. I am Mars, I am Anhur. I know more ways to kill a man than any being that has ever existed. Who do you think created death by a thousand cuts, the iron maiden, the breaking wheel? Do you think I’d have any trouble creating something new, something _special_ , for your precious half demon?”

She was physically shaking.She’d never been so afraid in her life. This panic, this fear, was so real. Somewhere out there, Inuyasha was in pain, where she could not reach him. And unless she submitted completely to Senso’s will, he would die in agony. The only chance she had now to stop him was to destroy him herself, preferably before the bomb dropped. She was so scared she could hardly breathe.

“So, are we in accord?”

She nodded, afraid to even speak.

“Very well then,” Senso responded. “We can begin the procedure.”

He stepped over to a metal table with a number of clinical-looking tools and picked up a set of pliers. Calm, calculated, he placed the pliers at his eyes and left them there for a moment. She heard a clink. He then pulled the pliers away, and somehow, they contained a bright point of light pulsing with demonic energy. Kagome struggled weakly against her restraints.

“Please, you don’t have to put that thing in me, I’ll do what you say!” Like hell she would, but maybe, just maybe…

“If you’ll do what I say, then you will accept my eye without question,” he responded, moving toward her. He placed his finger and thumbs on her eyelids. She tried to squeeze her eyes shut but he was too strong. He pried her left eye open and approached it with the pliers. Somewhere, almost out of body, she heard herself whimper. The light felt hot as it approached, like a firey coal approaching her eye. She screamed as it got closer, closer, closer still. The pain seared into her pupil, through the iris, through the optic nerve until she felt like her brain was on fire.

Then it was done. He stepped back and she blinked. The heat was gone, as if it had never been there to begin with. In its place was discomfort; it felt like something was in her eye, like a particle of dust, only it could not be blinked out. The irritant felt more mental than it did physical. She knew something was there, her brain was telling her something was there, but physically she could not see a difference.

Senso looked different, though. He was staring at her, pliers in hand, with two dark, brown eyes. His pupils were large like a shark's. He placed his tool back on its table and approached her again.

“How does it feel?” he asked. It was clear he was not concerned about her feelings on the matter; rather, it was more of a scientific inquiry.

“I feel nothing.”

“Good. We shall proceed with charging the battery. Now hold still.”

_Now_ he wanted her to hold still?

He stepped away from the girls and back up the path towards the large room’s exit. There was some sort of panel, maybe a switchboard on the wall. He pressed a few buttons and the room went dark, all except for two small lights. One from Makshi’s right eye, and one from Kagome’s left. The two girls stared at each other, unable to communicate, but Kagome knew exactly what Makshi was telling her. It was written in her body language, in the twist of her lips, in the shrunken posture of her shoulders.

_I’m sorry_.

Senso shouted from the edge of the room: “First, a test.”

He pressed a button and her whole body went numb in an instant. Something strange was emanating from the cuffs that were restraining her. Little discharges. She wanted to resist but she couldn’t— Senso had her body in complete control. Then it stopped, and for a blessed moment, Kagome thought maybe that would be it.

“Good,” she heard Senso murmur across the room. Then he pressed button number two.

Suddenly a blinding pain shot through her arms. This was it. If she’d thought the heat from the demon eye was bad, this was nothing compared to the surge of electricity that wound its way up her arms and into her spine. She felt her body go rigid as the voltage warped her nerves; she could feel each and every one firing in pain as she writhed. Her brain, her body, her very soul was on fire. She was vaguely aware of a twin scream from across the room, but it barely registered. Her mind flashed with sense memories.

Seeing Inuyasha pinned with Kikyo’s arrow on the Sacred Tree.

Sango and Miroku and Shippo’s faces as she arrived back in the Feudal Era.

Inuyasha voice telling her that he would protect her with his life.

The sacred jewel shard disappearing.

The feeling of Inuyasha’s lips on hers just before the well closed.

The well, closed.

The tears she cried at her grandfather’s funeral.

Seeing Inuyasha in the rain for the first time in years.

His lips again.

Fire as they left Tokyo.

His golden eyes, dancing in the light as they looked at her with love and desire.

The smell of ashes of a town assaulted.

The taste of vegetable soup.

The human beads in Taberume’s shop.

Kissing him one last, blessed time.

Then, it went dark.

…

…

For a minute at least, all was darkness. What had happened? Was she dead? Maybe her body was dead, but her brain was still working? Perhaps she had simply made it to the afterlife, and this is what it was. Existence without experience. Existence without sensory input. _What kind of hell_ , she thought.

But hell was over as soon as it began. Only sparking at first, she watched the room begin to light up as the wires leeched spiritual energy from the girls. They lit up as if they were long, long wicks to a candle that was far away. They traveled up and over one another until they all fizzled out, disappeared into the walls, before a return to darkness.

The room was silent and dark. Back to the nothingness it had appeared to be before. She heard nothing, not a sound, until there was a tiny crack somewhere that echoed throughout the room. She opened her mouth to say something, anything to break the silence, when—

**_CRACK._ **

The sky was literally falling.

Debris rained down from the top left corner of the room and onto the wires below in thick hunks of concrete and steel. Beams of light streamed through the ceiling through the holes and cracks onto the wires beneath as everything creaked and dust plumed. The room was covered in concrete and plaster powder, and she coughed, trying to see through the dusty air. She heard someone cry out in what could only be described as pure, unadulterated rage. She didn’t hear rage like that often, and when she did it was usually _him_ …

But no, he couldn’t be here, he was somewhere injured by Senso’s men, lying in the forest all alone, bleeding out to where she couldn’t help him. She was hearing what she wanted to hear, believing what she wanted to believe; an echo of the past. She felt nauseous.

Then she heard steel against steel. Something massive swinging against something else. The dust began to settle somewhat to where she could make out Makshi’s form across from her, blood trickling down her nose— passed out, most likely, or maybe… no….

Kagome couldn’t sense the girl’s aura anymore. What had once been a brilliant red was now dark, only a faint glow of what had been there still present in the air around her.

“No…” Kagome said, her voice croaking, dry from the powder in the air. “No no no _NO_! _Makshi_!”

The girl did not stir. Makshi’s head lolled onto her chest and her beautiful, curly hair fell over her face. The other priestess was dead.

What had happened? Whatever switch Senso had flipped had been terrible, painful, jarring, but why had it killed Makshi and not her? Had it simply been too much for the girl after months of abuse?

She couldn’t ponder the question anymore as something was thrown back against a concrete wall to her right. She saw the glint of something she couldn’t place—it couldn’t be—

Tetsusaiga.

“Inuyasha?” she called, softly, not believing he was real. Surely she was calling out to ghosts. “Inuyasha?” Her voice sounded skeptical, hopeless.

“Ka—” she heard before something flew into him and his response was cut off.

“ _NO_!” Kagome shouted. It was him, it had to be. She had to free herself so she could help him, do something. She strained against the manacles on her wrists, feeling them bruise and bleed as she squirmed. She pulled until she heard something crack; strangely, she didn’t feel the pain as much as she expected. Perhaps Senso’s machine had deadened her nerve endings.

Good.

She was about to pull her right arm like she had her left, but then her restraints opened of their own accord. It was as if someone else had freed her. She looked around the room and saw Senso back at the switchboard. He had a gash over his forehead that gushed black blood over his face, his eyes pulled completely into his sockets. He was smiling with razor sharp teeth.

“Do as I bid, priestess,” he said. “Kill him.”

Without warning, her vision, all of her senses, were sucked back into her mind. She felt as if she were watching a movie of her actions on a screen, only she could feel it all— hear it, see it, smell it. She just had no control over it.

Her heart sank. Her throat closed in fear.

Senso was going to make her kill Inuyasha.

She would not let that happen. She could not let that happen. Who did Senso think he was? She was the priestess who had beaten Naraku, who had defeated the Shikon jewel, banishing it forever. But she felt her limbs pulled like a puppet’s, her own motions being controlled by some being that was within her, but not _of_ her.

As the dust settled she saw Inuyasha hunched over in the crater that had been made by his impact. He wielded Tetsusaiga and held himself with the confidence of a man that was winning the fight, but the gash in his side told a different story.

She felt herself stand, and his eyes traveled to her. Instantly they filled with fear.

“Kagome—” he said, as if unsure it was her, “—your eye.”

_Run,_ she thought, _Run, you dummy, run away from here._ But she knew he would not run. He was not a runner from anything and she prayed it would not be the death of him. She felt a wetness on her cheek. He pulled himself up on Tetsusaiga and she felt her hand grab a stray piece of metal as she approached him.

“You’re crying,” he said, his eyes wide, his body transfixed by her advance.

_Run from me!_ She tried to scream, but no words came out. _Run away!_

She’d felt this way before, like she’d had no control over her actions, that she might hurt him, but it had never felt this dire. He was already injured, she was coursing with demonic energy and spiritual energy, and they were surrounded by a roomful of wires that was just begging to explode. The cold metal warmed in her touch, and she could feel how much energy she’d channeled into it. She heard it sizzle against her skin.

He seemed to finally, _finally_ notice the metal in her hand, then he looked up at her, backing away. _Finally_.

“Kagome, what are you doing?”

Her arm was raised as if to strike, and she slammed her arm on what would have been his chest, had he not dodged her at the last second.

She watched in horror as her body attempted to kill the man she loved.

She darted quickly, almost as fast as him. When had she gotten this fast? Was it the eye? Did it matter? She narrowly missed him time after time, each attempt on his life getting closer and closer to hitting his body. She heard him curse as he tried to stay just one step ahead of her.

“Fight it, Kagome!” he yelled as she plunged the metal shard into the wall next to his head. He took the opportunity to make a dangerous move— before she could let go, he dropped his sword and grabbed her wrist. Her unencumbered hand flew up to his throat, but he caught it too, just in time, before she could strangle him.

“Fight it,” he said, his eyes searching her normal eye for something, any sign of her. She felt like she was throwing herself against a mental barrier, over and over again, desperate to get out and take control over herself again. The wetness continued to stain her cheeks as she felt her body grieve, despite being under someone else’s control.

“Kagome,” he whispered, understanding somehow that she was trying. Her body began to thrash against him, as if to free herself, but he held her strong. He transferred both of her wrists to a single hand, then used his free arm to wrap around her back and pull her close to him. She could smell the blood— so much blood and sweat— on him even through the lens of possession. Her head began to bang against his chest as she continued to fight him. He pressed the hand on her back to her head, tangling in her hair.

“It’s okay Kagome,” he said, muttering its okay into her ear over and over as she continued to thrash. “I told you. I’m not ever letting you go.”

Her body cried out in frustration, but it was more than that. It was some strange sense of relief because even in this hellscape scenario, she knew she was safe. She was never safer than when he was with her.

Then she heard him curse and shove her hard away from him.

What—

She fell onto her back but sat up almost immediately. She had to see what had happened— where—

No.

Above her, Inuyasha groaned. In his gut, in the same place he had been injured before, was a charged silver spear. He was staring at it as if he didn’t understand what he was looking at, his eyebrows drawn. His hands framed the wound, unsure if he should touch it, or if he should leave it. He was pinned to the wall. He was shaking.

“ ** _NOOO_** _!!_ ” she heard herself scream, and a pulse of electricity crackled throughout the room. Every wire, every synapse was firing, sparking, so full of her anger and rage that it could not be contained. The fluorescent lights in the ceiling flickered ominously.

Kagome was only slightly in control of her body now, but Senso seemed to be struggling, too. When she looked at him, he stood dumbfounded. His arm was still in the arc of throwing the spear, but it hung in the air as if suspended. The pits he had for eyes were facing her, his jaw unhinged. He was shocked.

“You— you took over the eye— that’s not possible.” Senso stumbled back onto more debris. He was a shell of the man he’d been even a mere hour ago; his uniform torn and bloodied, his thick hair stained with blood. Whatever power he had given to Kagome and Makshi, whatever energy they had expelled in charging the battery, it had clearly taken a toll on him as well.

She felt she could not speak. All of her power was concentrated in her center, her heart thumping against her chest with more than blood. It was energy, harnessed and contained within her.

Her eyes met Senso’s. If only he’d known that Kagome did the impossible all the time.

She charged after her weaponless enemy, rage pushing her on, intent on his demise. He tried to stay out of her reach but she easily overtook him. His throat was under her hands, and she could feel his blood pulsing through his neck. His life so close to an end. She could feel it, the demon eye in her desired it. It was her base desire and the eye would do whatever it could to help.

“You—you—” Senso’s speech was garbled as she pressed on his windpipe, draining his air slowly as he clawed gashes into her unfeeling forearms. “You cannot stop the war— it is already done. You have doomed them all. War will— will continue on without me.”

She pressed harder and his voice was cut off. His breath was leaving slowly, but not slow enough. She wanted to feel him suffer, to feel him expire beneath her. The demon eye in her demanded it.

“It will,” she said, her voice returned, more or less in her control. Her tone was grave. “But you will not be there to see it.”

Her hands squeezed and the demon exhaled his last bit of air. His body fell limp in her hands, his head rolling back. He was dead, but he had not suffered enough. She gripped his neck tighter, hearing things crack, feeling his arteries and veins tear, relishing in the pain it should have caused, when a hand settled on her shoulder. Instantly, she felt somehow diffused, as if whatever had been driving her to bloodlust had been extinguished

“He is dead,” said a familiar but unexpected voice. Deep, male. “You must leave him.”

Kagome turned around, blinking, as if she had been under some sort of trance. To her great surprise, standing before her, smiling with the kind hand on her shoulder, was Makshi. The girl’s cheeks were rosy and she appeared far healthier than when Kagome had last seen her. When she had been dead. She _had_ been dead though, and it didn’t make sense for her to be walking, up and about, until she saw who was standing a few paces behind the girl.

“Sesshomaru,” Kagome said, her voice still a bit sore, eyeing the tall dog demon. Then it all clicked into place. Sesshomaru had brought the girl back to life with the Tenseiga. Sure enough, she saw its hilt glisten from his hip. She wondered what had happened to its twin, Tetsusaiga, in the midst of battle and then, then it hit her—

“Inuyasha— _Inuyasha_!” she screamed. Stumbling past Makshi and completely ignoring Sesshomaru she tore across the demolished room, caring little for the wires that sparked at her feet. She had to get to him. Across the room she saw him, pinned to the wall by the crackling spike, hands still hovering as if unsure what to do. He had to have been in shock because he didn’t even raise his head to look at her when she reached him.

“Inuyasha…”

It was the worst wound she had ever seen him sustain. Something about the nature of the weapon and it’s combination with Senso’s energy— whatever it was— was proving too much for his body to overcome. It was so bad that he hadn’t even started to transform into his demon form, as if his demon blood decided it would be of no use. She touched his face, trying to get him to look at her, but when he did, his eyes were almost unseeing.

“Kagome, I…” he said, looking back at the spear. He was having trouble understanding.

She couldn’t understand either. Why, with everything they had been through, this was how he was going to die. He couldn’t die.

“You can’t die,” she said, holding his head in her hands, pressing her forehead against his as tears flowed freely down her face. “Just hold on I-Inuyasha, we’ll fix this, we can— maybe Tensaiga can—”

“Tensaiga can only bring back the dead,” said Sesshomaru. “He could take hours.”

He said it so dismissively, so flippantly. She turned on Sesshomaru viciously, her fingers crackling with electricity. How _dare_ he.

“ _You wanna say that again, you piece of shit_?!”

Sesshomaru snarled, clearly not caring about Inuyasha’s plight or Kagome’s fear. “No human has _ever_ dared speak to me in such a disrespectful manner.”

His fangs began to lengthen and his eyes started to narrow and redden when Makshi stepped forward and placed a hand on his arm. He paused, his features settled, and he looked at her. She stepped back and proceeded to make a series of signs with her hands and arms. At times they were emphatic, at times subtle, but Kagome recognized sign language when she saw it. She was just surprised Sesshomaru did too.

She looked between the two communicating and Inuyasha, who was bordering on the edge of unconsciousness. She cradled his head to hers, hoping he could feel her there.

“Don’t leave me,” she whispered. “You promised. You have to stay.”

He whimpered her name and she wanted to scream.

She heard Makshi make a small noise in the back of her throat, and Kagome turned to look at them, her arms still around Inuyasha.

“Makshi has the following message to relay,” Sesshomaru said, clearly begrudgingly. “She says she was the one to summon you from the future. She knew if there was any hope of defeating Senso, it would have to be with the help of the… _fabled_ priestess that stopped Naraku. So she summoned you. She would like to thank you for disposing of Senso, as she was untrained and very weak from months of possession and could not do so herself. She also wanted it to be known that you need not worry about the bomb setting off discharges in major cities around the world, which had been Senso’s intended plan. I, Sesshomaru, have been systematically dismantling the network across the country and on the mainland for some time.”

Kagome stared. This was all good information, but at this moment in time, she could have cared less. If it wasn’t a way to save the man in her arms, she didn’t want to hear it.

“Makshi also has an offer for you. As she brought you to the past, she fully intended to send you back. However, she also has the power to heal Inuyasha’s wound,” he said, his mouth tight, clearly disagreeing with Makshi’s plan. “She only has enough power to do one. She cannot do both. She would like to offer you the choice.”

A choice. In spite of herself, in spite of the whole crazy situation they were in and had been in for the past week, she couldn’t help but think that this was a hilarious offer. _Hilarious_. She almost had the urge to laugh, it was so ridiculous. Because it wasn’t a choice, was it? When it came to him, it had never been a choice. Her future, in whatever time period, was with him. Always.

She’d deal with the consequences later, come what may. She knew she could do anything with him at her side.

Makshi must have understood, because the girl nodded without Kagome even speaking and approached the two of them. She gave Kagome a sincere hug, and Kagome hugged her back.

“Thank you,” Kagome whispered into the girl’s hair.

Makshi nodded, and laid her hands on Inuyasha’s shoulders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you.  
> And hey,  
> stay safe,  
> stay healthy,  
> and sweet dreams.


	12. epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't just leave it there, can I?

“Everyone has been so kind.”

It had been three days since Kagome and Inuyasha made it to Masao and Haruka’s place in the mountains, and about four days since the battle with Senso. Hiroshima had been bombed, and the radio chirped in frenzied warnings and reassurances from the government. But Kagome knew the damage. She knew the loss. It was only the beginning.

Still, they’d fought the man who dared to call himself war and won. They hadn’t stopped the war—she wasn’t sure anyone could have, looking back—but they stopped destruction from spreading, and they saved who knew how many lives in the grand scheme of things. That would have to be enough.

After the battle, Sesshomaru had left with Makshi, leaving Kagome and Inuyasha alone to find their way back. Inuyasha was mostly healed but still exhausted, and Kagome was still thrumming with power. Thankfully, the demon eye had fallen out at some point, because her vision was fine. It was confirmed when Inuyasha looked at her, really looked at her, and she could see her reflection in his eyes. She looked terrible, a right mess, but her eyes were normal, and that’s how she planned on them staying.

They’d made it to the train station with hours to spare before the bomb went off. If anyone thought it was odd that someone in traditional miko clothing was helping a blood-soaked soldier onto the train, they didn’t say anything. Kagome doubted she would have noticed anyway. She was so focused on him, tending to his dazed consciousness, that they nearly missed their stop. He was oriented but barely. He just kept saying her name and asking if she was okay. Her heart ached a little bit each time he asked.

Once they’d made it to the foothills of the mountain, they were able to call up to Masao’s home and Aomame and Shoichi met them with the car. Aomame gave Kagome a giant hug, and Shoichi slung Inuyasha’s arm over his shoulder and helped him into the back of the car. At first, Aomame wanted to talk, to ask Kagome everything, but she quickly realized the pair was not up for that just yet. Kagome had crawled up into Inuyasha’s lap and rested her head on his chest as the car made its way up the mountain. His arms wrapped protectively around her. Aomame must have figured that whatever they had been through, it had been hell.

The first twenty four hours were rough. Not because anyone was physically hurting still—most of Inuyasha’s wounds were completely healed thanks to Makshi, and Kagome’s electric surge was down to only the occasional static shock— but because the first night on the mountain was a new moon. Inuyasha’s human night. It was terrible timing, but she was thankful that it had not been the night immediately after the attack or, heaven forbid, the night before. Still, he was shaken, having come so close to death as a half demon, that the weakness of his human form made him more terrified than ever. He didn’t admit as much, but he gripped Kagome to him even tighter than he had as a full demon; not letting her up for anything. She had to beg him to go to the bathroom, and even then, he accompanied her, hovering at the door while she went. It would have embarrassed the hell out of her had it even been a few days earlier, but now she just wanted him to feel safe. And if that meant literally being in the same room with her all day for the time being, then that was what it meant.

Aomame brought them food three times a day, and Inuyasha eventually perked up a bit. He’d introduced her to Masao and Haruka, who had apparently already been informed that she was Inuyasha’s… something, because they didn’t ask how the two knew each other. Thankfully, Haruka was much closer to Kagome’s size physically, so she finally had some clothes that fit. Not that she kept them on for the whole visit.

The second night, he finally kept his promise, and they slept together. He’d told her again that he loved her and that he was done with the military, he would leave behind all of that now that she was with him. He mentioned helping her get back home to the 21st century and she told him about Makshi’s offer, the choice she had to make between going home and saving him. He listened closely, and when she was done speaking, he pressed her down into the bed and kissed her senseless. She felt like he was consuming her—flesh, mind, spirit— and she only regretted she did not have more to give. He sank into her over and over again, and they muffled cries of ecstasy into each other’s mouths so as not to wake anyone else in the house. It was painful and perfect; they were both virgins and had no idea what they were doing in practice, only in theory. But when she touched his skin, the way he responded, the way she responded to his tongue all over her, moaning at each touch— they didn’t need practice. It wasn’t like they were going to ever be with anyone else, anyway.

Afterwards, in the hazy glow of post-coitus, as she drew circles onto his skin with the pads of her fingers, he said something along the lines of “when we get married, where do you want to live?”. Kagome sat up and looked at him, jaw dropped.

Then made love again. And again. And once more. Kagome did, after all, have a few things that she’d wanted to try after years of waiting, and Inuyasha seemed more than happy to oblige.

The next morning, they got a knock on the door from Aomame, who essentially told them it was gross listening to her uncle fuck all night and she wanted some goddamn sleep, thank you very much.

Kagome sat silent, embarrassed, but Inuyasha’s response was the loudest, most carefree laugh she’d ever heard him utter. It was joy, it was freedom, it was happiness, and it was all she’d ever wanted for him.

That she was the reason for his joy? Just icing on the cake.

They laughed, and played card games with the others, and cooked whatever meat Masao had hunted off the mountain. Kagome was showered in comments from Haruka and Aomame in how different their uncle was, and how he couldn’t take his eyes off her. She could do nothing but smile. She knew, because she couldn’t keep her eyes off him, either.

There they were, in the middle of a war, their country being bombed, and all Kagome could think about was how good it felt to be sore from him inside her, rather than injuries sustained in battle.

How wonderful it felt to have friends that could see the real her, the full her, with Inuyasha by her side. 

How she never, not even once, regretted her decision to stay with him, to trade her present for his future, for their future.

So when she commented “Everyone has been so kind”, he responded by coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her. He leaned into her ear and spoke in a tone of sheer adoration.

“Because it’s you, Kagome,” Inuyasha said. “Because you’re family. You’re home.”


	13. after credits scen

“Do ya think she’s coming back?” asked Souta, his body hanging awkwardly over the well. His mother and Shippo looked in, too, but a bit farther away.

“I dunno,” said Shippo shrugging. “I mean she always came back to the Feudal Era until she didn’t. But that’s how it used to work.”

“Hmm,” Mrs. Higurashi wondered aloud. “Maybe she’s found him and she’s going to stay with him. I can’t pretend that it would be a surprise. I know she wanted to stay with you all.”

Shippo gave her a toothy smile. “We loved Kagome. And we missed her a lot. She was like a mom to me all those years ago.”

Mama Higurashi looked at him with a bit of a twinkle in her eye. She’d always wanted grandchildren.

At the entrance to the shrine two figures stood arm in arm, listening to Souta, Mrs. Higurashi and Shippo talk as they hovered over the well.

“Do you think we should wait a bit more?” said the woman. “Maybe give them a chance so I don’t give mama a heart attack?”

“Pretty sure we’re going to give your mother a heart attack either way. Shippo, too, maybe,” responded the man.

“Well, yeah, thinking someone’s been dead will do that to a person. Funny how we were able to keep the timeline by just staying away from family and friends for a few decades. For all they know, you did die in Hiroshima.”

“And they’ve barely had a chance to miss you.”

“Hmm. I missed them.”

“Yeah, I know.”

The man kissed the woman on the forehead and drew her into his arms.

“Mama’s had so much loneliness in her life; I’m glad she won’t get the chance to really miss me, at least. And I _know_ she’s going to be thrilled when we tell her the news.”

“Keh. I don’t think thrilled’s going to cover it,” the man said, his hands drifting to the woman’s stomach. “Now let’s go tell your mother you’re pregnant before she goes and tries to adopt Shippo.”

—

“But wait, what will I tell them about why I haven’t aged?”

“Eh, we’ll make something up.”


End file.
